Red, White and Blue
by Le Tigre
Summary: Miklotov and Camus are two cops fighting against the Highland Mafia group led by Luca Blight. It doesn't sound too promising I know but please give it a shot. (Final chapter up)
1. A typical working day

Red, White and Blue

Julian Miklotov was tall, thin and had a jaw an architect could draw straight lines with, his black hair-like everything else he owned-was stiff and neat and he wore his limited clothes with a strange pride, keeping them in horribly good condition (you could see the creases in a five year old pair of jeans). He was twenty six years old, a very fussy and meticulous man who liked to say what was on his mind, suffice to say, he didn't have very much luck with women but he didn't care because he had his job. He was a police officer.

Miklotov had been a police officer since the age of nineteen, he had received his badge with pride and promised to uphold the law but more importantly, to protect those weaker than himself. As Miklotov liked to say "I am a human first, and a police officer second", meaning he would do what his heart told him to do first, not orders. His father had taught him that many years ago and he kept those words with him, even after his fathers death three years ago.

Miklotov entered the Highland city police station at half five in the morning to catch up with some paper work, he always arrived early but decided to have a lie in. He entered the building, the only people there was Rachel Leona the receptionist who was drinking feverishly from a mug of coffee and taking aspirin at the same time, the other was Tony the janitor, a tubby man with a huge grin stuck on his face. Despite the fact that he was living on janitor's wages, he had a Mercedes and numerous gold chains and expensive looking "gangsta" jewellery. Miklotov knew he was probably involved in drugs but had never ratted him put or mentioned it because he liked him. The tall man walked up to Leona

"Hello Rachel" He said, his voice was charismatic and musical "Any paper work for me?"

"Nope" Said Leona "But the guy you dragged in last night got let off"

"What!?!? That druggie!?!?" Shouted Miklotov, enraged "Who authorised this?"

"Bobby" Said Leona, taking another swig of coffee, her usually neat black hair, falling about her face unevenly, as hair usually did in the early hours of the morning "He said you had had a rough night so he'd take over."

"That idiot! That man was a drug trafficker!" 

"Actually, he was a fifteen year old called Billy Chaco, he decided to snort a headache pill for a dare." She intercepted, before refilling her mug with a coffee pitcher "Bobby did a drug test on him just to be sure, he was clean. Just a dumb kid."

"I think I'd rather hear that from Camus!" Said Miklotov unnecessarily loudly and dramatically. " I hardly think YOU'R qualified to give me that kind of information." Leona, stared at him blankly

"I'd kick your ass if you weren't such a girl Miklotov." She said before getting down to some paper work .

Miklotov gasped in indignation, turned round and stomped into his office, his shared office. 

Everything he had he had to share with Camus, his charming, good looking friend. Though he had been Miklotov's best friend for years now, he still felt bitter about the mans success. Miklotov worked his ass off every night while Camus went off cruising for chicks, and he was just as successful as him. It just wasn't fair.

Miklotov's ears pricked up as he heard Leona's greeting, Camus was here.

Bobby Camus had been a police man since the age of twenty, when he had enrolled in the police academy, thanks to his crack shot and cool head in a crisis he had been quickly promoted to detective and assigned along with his best friend Miklotov to sort out gang crimes in Highland city. He certainly didn't look like a hard-ass police officer, firstly he smiled all the time, secondly he never carried a gun except when on the job, Camus thought that guns were unnecessary unless violence could not be avoided. He was tall, fair haired and good looking and notoriously popular in the city, however Camus' best friend was Miklotov whom he hung round with all the time, annoying the workaholic young man.

Camus strolled into the police station and was instantly met with Leona's greeting and Tony's jovial nod, Camus loved this part of the day, the morning, when he didn't have to worry about any crime 'til commissioner Gorudo got there. When he could walk along the cells and admire his handiwork, thugs of all shapes and sizes ready to be shipped off to Highlands city's high security prison. It nearly brought a tear to the young mans eye. 

He smiled at the two and walked straight to his office and was instantly faced with Miklotov, a vein throbbing in his temple.

"Where have you been?" he said, sounding strangled, as if he was forcing himself not to wring Camus' neck.

"Sleeping." Camus said "Jesus Mikki its like, half five." 

"That's not the point!" he said, his vein throbbing even more at the annoying nickname Camus used for him, however he continued unabated "The point is you let that junkie off last night didn't you!?"

"Yes." Camus sighed, walking past his friend and sitting at his desk. "Here's the paper work." He tossed Miklotov a file with two or three papers, showing Billy Chaco's statistics and reasons for being brought in. Miklotov's vein nearly popped. However Camus didn't notice this and continued "I did a couple of drug tests, he didn't have anything on him and showed no signs of toxins in his body. It was a headache pill, he snorted it for a dare."

"That's not the point!" he positively screamed " The point is you did not contact me about this!" Camus looked up at this outburst.

"Sorry buddy, didn't think it was that important." He said sincerely

"Its not that specifically!" Miklotov said, sitting at his own desk and pinching the bridge of his nose "But you never feel my views are important, your so full of yourself!" 

"C'mon man, you were tired, u saw the kid staggering around like he was high. But the fact is, you were depressed, you weren't exactly on top form last night were you?." Camus said "And to be blunt, you made a pretty rookie mistake." Miklotov knew Camus was right, taking the kid in was justified but he should have done the tests before he went home instead of leaving the kid in a cell.

The reason Miklotov had been so distracted lately was because his girlfriend Emma had dumped him. He had been depressed for weeks and then went into a stage of distracted over-performing, where he would do more than he had to. Badly. The kid had been a perfect example of that, he wasn't even on duty at the time but he still felt he had to take him in, any other officer would have stayed away in case a crazy drug baron was around the corner and the kid owed him money.

Camus could see he was thinking and snapped him out of it by throwing a paper aeroplane at him, it him between the eyes and he blinked furiously, looking at Camus, annoyance plain on his thin face. Camus laughed

"Wanna get a burger, no one will be in for another two hours." Miklotov shook his head

"I have a lot of paper work to do."

"Bullshit!" Camus scoffed "its been so quiet lately, now c'mon." He grabbed his friend by the arm and pulled him out the door, telling Leona where they were going.

After Miklotov shouted and made a big scene for a bit, Camus let go

"What the hell are you trying to do!?!?" 

"Well when you've finished shouting." He said, pushing his friend into a an alley "I've got a lead on the Highland Mafia." Miklotov raised his eyebrows at this

"That would explain why you were so early."

"I just want to tell you this isn't authorised, we'd be doing this of our own free will, without backup."

"You know I won't have a problem with that." Miklotov said. It was true, if it meant protecting people, Miklotv would go to any lengths. Camus nodded

"I knew you'd come through for me buddy." He said "they're meeting at the steelmill in half an hour, we'll get down there and ambush them."

"Without any men?"

"Do we need them?" Camus grinned.

They made their way across town quickly, until they came to the steel mill, Camus knew the proprietor was corrupt and letting shady dealing happen in his place was something Camus expected, so the young police officer kept an ear on the street to find out about any suspicious goings on. The man was called Richmond, an ex DI, the man was a genius at finding things out and going undetected. Camus paid him handsomely for any information he could dig up.

The two walked forward and made they're way into the side entrance, the noise of steel works deafening them. The mill was a mishmash of walkways and furnaces, a top of the range mill, used to make and melt gadget equipment made by eccentric Japanese businessmen, they certainly made a lot of money. The two looked upwards and noticed a young man about their age with long red hair, wearing a snappy suit walking along one of the higher walkways with two large men in tow. 

Camus nudged his friend, who had seen them already and the two began to walk towards the stairs leading to the walkway the big men were on, due to many walkways and the fact that they had swiped a couple of hard hats when they walked in, they were able to remain pretty inconspicuous. Pretending they were on a break, the two walked leisurely forward, ignoring the workers and nodding when necessary. They neared the stairs and walked up slowly, suddenly a large man wearing an immaculate suit that looked as if it were about to explode blocked their path.

"And who the hell are you guys?" He said, craning his neck to look down at them, Camus and Miklotov were tall, but this man was a veritable giant.

"Well we work here." Camus grinned as confidently as he could

"Yep, we work here all right." Said Miklotov in a southern drawl, the drama lessons his mom had bought him so many years ago were finally paying off, they called him a pansy but look at him now!!!!! Ahem. The man looked at them and scowled.

"Get them." He said and two equally huge men came bounding after them, both of them grabbed the two police officers. "Sorry buddies but we don't believe you. Everyone here works for Highland Mafia and I don't recognise your faces."

"We're new recruits!" Camus shouted, a nervous quiver in his voice "I'm uh, Vinnie the shark! And this here's Billy Mcscary." He said, nodding at Miklotov who gave him an incredulous look as if to say 'that has to be the stupidest name I've ever heard', Camus winced apologetically and looked back at his large captor.

"Sorry Vinnie, but I don't believe you. Kill 'em boys." At this the two large men went for guns, to do this they had to let go of Camus and Miklotov, big mistake. The two whipped their guns out so fast it was a blur and spun round, firing at the two men, killing them. The third man attempted to get his gun out but was pistol whipped to the floor by Miklotov, the police officer then pinned the man to the floor and began to read him his rights while Camus leaped onto the platform with astounding agility, he was instantly faced with three bodyguards, he fired his gun and two guards went down, the third man attempted to fire but his pistol was shot out his hand by a third gunshot from Miklotov on the lower floor, Camus ran forward and knocked the man over easily, he then saw the proprietor and the well dressed young man escaping through a door to the roof accompanied by three guards, he followed and heard Miklotov running after him.

Camus opened the door and was surprised to see the body guards and the well dressed man gone, the proprietor also.

"Dammit!" Camus shouted, Miklotov ran up a few seconds later, his gun out, Camus looked at him "No point man, they're gone."

"Shit." Miklotov said, holstering his weapon "We're gonna be in trouble for this."

"And we didn't get any solid proof of any shady dealings. At least we snagged ourselves a couple of thugs though." Camus said checking the sides of the roof to check if they were hanging.

"We should be able to get a confession out of them." Miklotov said, walking down to the two thugs left alive. The two men walked back into the building.

And so ends another fruitless attempt to bring the seemingly untouchable Highland Mafia to justice. For many decades they have practically run Highland city. They are led by Mafia Boss Agares Blight, a genius at gang warfare who is fabled to be 'past his sell by date'. However they have eluded the police for years, even close calls like the one you have just read were easily covered up with bribes. Many police officers are not willing to go up against them, leaving them to do whatever they want. Could this all change? Could a few determined police officers change what has been going on consistently for years?


	2. Night out

Chapter 2

The Box was a popular and selective club in the nightlife district of Highland city. Camus, being a popular member of the community and on first name terms with the bouncer-a huge blonde man who hardly ever spoke called Humphrey- was always able to get in, he took Miklotov along with him sometimes, but his friend was certainly not the party type and usually ruined Camus' mood. The young man walked past the line and up to his huge bouncer friend, he nodded at the big man

"How you doin' Humphrey?"

"Fine, go on in, have a good night." He said, a smile playing on his lips, Humphrey hardly ever smiled, he was obviously in a good mood.

"What you so happy about?" Camus asked

"They finally let me adopt Futch." Humphrey said, his voice calm but his grey eyes full of joy

"Aw man! That's great news!" Camus said, Humphrey had took the young boy Futch off the street three years ago, he had taken care of him and the two had become very close, Futch was like a son to Humphrey and when social services took him to the orphanage, it had broken the bouncers heart. Now the young boy would be living with him, this lifted Camus' spirits as he had initially went to the club to get over the fact that Gorudo would put him on academic probation when he found out about the unauthorised raid Camus had organised, he would take full responsibility of course, making the shit even deeper.

Camus headed in and was instantly met with the pneumatic bass thumb of Prodigy, he went over to the bar and got himself a beer, he then saw someone he thought he recognised, the man was a little shorter than him, about his age and had long red hair. Could it be? Could this guy be the one from the steelmill. Camus walked over to the man and pretended to accidentally spill his drink as he walked past, it went all over the young man's shirt

"Ah shit! I'm sorry man." Camus said, picking up his glass, this allowed him to get a good look at the mans face as he got up, this didn't do much good though as he hadn't got a very good look at the mans face during the raid anyway. The young mans face was full of annoyance, 

"Why don't you watch where your going, ass?" He said, taking off his beer soaked jacket. Ah well thought Camus, this guy might now be part of the Highland Mafia, what the harm in teaching him a lesson? But only if he starts it. "What are you retarded? Stop looking at me like that." The man said, giving Camus a shove

"Whats your problem? It was an accident." Camus said, putting his glass down

"Yeah, well I'm not in the best of moods so you better stay out of my way." The red haired man said, shoving past Ashton and towards a tall man with white hair, he was older than his friend and his face was a mask of calm. The young man walked past him and into one of the VIP rooms. The white haired man walked over to Camus.

"I apologise for my friend, he can be rather uncouth at times." Said the man,

"Don't worry about it, he'll probably knock himself out on crack in the VIP room." Said Camus, ordering another drink.

"Actually I should probably stop him. Again I apologise for his behaviour." He said, beginning to walk away,

"No need." Camus said and began walking to a group of girls.

Flik was annoyed, he hated clubs, he hated the noise and the filth that hung around in them but Viktor had said that Highland Mafia operatives were here and he wasn't going t pass up a chance to kill them. The two walked in past the bouncer and went directly to the bar, Flik noticed a bunch of giggling girls being entertained by an attractive fair haired young man, he snorted, idiots. Looking over his shoulder he saw his large friend Viktor talking to the barman,

"So do you know how we can get into the VIP rooms?"

"Sorry bud." The barman said apologetically "You gotta pay extra for that."

"Shit." Viktor said and turned to Flik "We gotta pay-"

"I heard" Flik interrupted "And if those filth will be anywhere, It'll be the VIP rooms." Flik said, fingering his gun which was concealed in his jacket. Viktor nodded at his younger friend

"I think we can sneak in." he said

"What?" 

"Here." Viktor said, picking something off the floor. "Awfully convenient. So are you gonna go or am I?"

"I want to." Said Flik, steely determination in his striking blue eyes. "I have to kill them for what they did."

"Your call bud." Said Viktor, handing the VIP card to his friend "Just be careful, ok?" Flik nodded and made his way to the VIP lounge.

Camus grinned as he walked back to the bar, he had two of the girls numbers and was already beginning to forget about how badly Gorudo was going to kill him, he sat down and looked at the numbers, a pair of foreign looking girls called Rina and Eilie, the best thing was they were sisters, a sly smile played on Camus' lips. Then he heard the vibration of his phone he walked outside to get better reception and escape from the noise. He answered and head Miklotov's voice

"Dammit Camus! Where are you!?"

"At the Box." He said, he didn't know what this was about but he was pretty sure and Miklotov sounded like he was about to have a hernia.

"Commissioner Gorudo found out about the raid, I told him we had a lead but the fat bastard wouldn't listen, I think he's going to put me on academic probation."

"Is that all? I thought we were going to get fired." Camus said, relief flooding his whole body, he then realised what Miklotov had said "What do you mean 'we'?"

"Well I took full responsibility." 

"You dumb fuck, you'll get fired! Forget about probation, Gorudo hates you!"

"No matter Camus, I am confident in the knowledge that we did the right thing and furthermore-"

"I'm coming over to straighten this out." Camus said, cutting Miklotov off "See you in a few minutes." He then switched his phone off as not to be bothered and started making his way to the police station when he heard screaming and gunshots coming from the club. "Ah horseshit!" He shouted, one problem after another. With that thought, he ran back into the club.

Amidst the tall skyscrapers of Highland city was the tallest of them all, Blight Arms, the largest weapons magnate in America, it was hugely successful and had made billions upon billions of dollars in the decades it had been around and was the official weapons distributor to the US army. It was owned by, surprise surprise, Agares Blight, he had owned it for thirty years since his father death. However Blight Arms was just a front for his powerful Mafia, with it he made sure all important buyers invested in Blight Arms and that was one of the secrets of his success. Another useful factor of a coexisting weapons manufacturer was the new weapons they imported could be used by their Mafia as a little test run. Agares was currently in one of his Swiss condo's, he spent a lot of his time their, he let Leon Silverburg (his genius financial advisor) run his company and his son Luca run the Mafia while he spent his time getting old in luxury. It made Luca sick. But then again, everything made Luca sick, Luca hated all things and his mission in life was make sure the things he hated suffered. When he was diagnosed with extreme sociopathy, he made sure the psychiatrist mysteriously disappeared, when the doctors announced his mother was dead he killed them. Luca was the most evil man you could ever meet, and he looked the part too, his wild staring eyes and unruly hair only added to the effect that made him so feared, he liked it that way.

The young psychopath was currently at the Blight Arms corporate meeting table, they used it for bussiness meetings usually but only people at the table were Luca and Leon Silverburg, a man with staring, hawk-like eyes and slicked back brown hair with a moustache to match. 

"I expect you heard about the steelmill incident earlier?" Said Leon, his voice low and intimidating

"Of course I fucking heard! Seed reported back to me immediately." Said Luca

"What do you propose we do about it sir?" Said Leon, calm in the face of the young mans uncouth manner

"You're the friggin' financial advisor! You figure something out. But whatever we do, I'm gonna have a little fun, these cops have a lot of balls doing this to me. It'll add a little bit of excitement to this job, this city bores me."

"Me too." Leon said quietly, and he meant it, Highland city had to be the crummiest shithole in America and he would be glad to leave. He was thinking of resigning anyway, he wasn't getting any younger and he had a lot of money, plus he hated Luca and his mad, violent ways.

"Whats that old man?"

"Nothing sir." Said Leon, calmly

"Whatever." Suddenly, Luca's phone rang, he answered it "Yeah hello?" Leon heard a low voice say something "What the fuck are you talking about Culgan?" Leon heard the voice again "Well let the stupid shit die then! He failed me once, not again!" With that Luca threw his mobile phone against a wall, shattering it immediately and with a nod at Leon said "Good day." And left. The middle aged man massaged his sinuses, if he wasm't going to resign then he hoped to god he got fired.


	3. The beginning

Chapter 3

Dammit Camus, where are you?

"Ok lets just settle this like adults!" Said Camus as he stared down the barrel of a particularly nasty custom built gun "I mean c'mon, you don't _have _to kill me per say, why not just rough me up a bit?" 

"No!" Shouted Flik "Anyone who tries to protect those Mafia scum should be killed."

"Dammit I'm a cop, what you think I'm just gonna stand here while you put a load of holes in this charming young mans head?" He said, gesturing towards the red headed young man who was giving them both the finger

"Fuck you both, I'm outta here!" He grinned and made his way to the back of the VIP room, where he ran out a hidden door, used for situations such as this, Flik attempted to shoot but Camus was able to grab his arm and forcefully direct the bullet towards a cheesy disco ball put up there for a joke, Flik cursed and struck Camus across the face with his gun, knocking the police officer to the floor, he then ran quickly after the fleeing red head.

"Fuck" Was all Camus said as he got up shakily, wiping blood from his mouth, he then ran after the two.

From the shadows, the silver haired man, Culgan, silently cursed to himself as well. He didn't need this cop getting involved, he was complicating things.

Ohfuckohfuckohfuck fuck FUCK ! Hurry up Camus!!!! Was all that was racing through Miklotov's mind as he paced his office, if Camus didn't get here he would be fired for sure, Miklotov's initial firm belief that he was right now led to fear, he knew Gorudo hated him and he knew he would fire him. Miklotov couldn't get fired, he always imagined his enforcing career to end with him quitting and running off to save a large chested damsel in distress single handedly from a load of terrorists. Another reason why he was swearing over and over again in his head was that Camus hadn't answered his phone, he was worried that his partner might be in trouble. Suddenly he got a call, he answered

"Hello?"

"Yo Mikki!" Miklotov's eye twitched "I'm gonna need your help here bud, there's a self proclaimed batman chasing this dude down a highstreet." Camus voice sounded uneven and laboured as if he was running (which he was)

"Which one?"

"Muse. Hurry man!" With that Camus ended the call. Miklotov ran into Gorudo's office

"What do you want you little foreskin?"

"We need at least two patrol cars blocking Muse highstreet." Miklotov said

"And why is that?" Said Gorudo, taking a large bite out of a donut, his bear like hands engulfing the pastry and stuffing almost all of it into his mouth, his straight but still impressive beard was peppered with frosting.

"There's a chase, a vigilante is attacking an innocent but suspected member of the Highland Mafia. Camus told-"

"Shut up." Said Gorudo, cutting him off "The li'l guy probably ate too much sugar and is having hallucinations."

"Sir, this is serious." Said Miklotov "And you are obliged to send patrol cars according to section eigh-"

"Fine, knock yourself out." Said Gorudo, cutting Miklotov off again "But your balls are on the chopping block when you get back." Miklotov thanked him and raced out of the office.

Thank god for long streets. Thought Camus as he chased the two men further down Muse street, suddenly just as the two were about to round the bend, three patrol cars cut them off, Camus saw Miklotov come out of one of the cars and aimed a gun at the advancing pair, the other policemen did the same, Camus grinned, finally some assistance.

"Put the gun down, we have you surrounded!" Shouted Miklotov, Flik just stood there, his gun pointed at the red head, he was grinning and said something to Flik, the young mans eyes flared with rage and he struck the red head down with his gun, he was stopped from making another move by a gunshot to the stomach, he fell to the floor, clutching his abdomen. Camus winced, 

"Well it looks like its over." He said quietly to himself as he walked towards the squad cars.

The squad cars were starting to file back into the police station, an ambulance was taking the writhing form of Flik away. Camus got into one of the patrol cars, Miklotov got into the one next to him

"We gonna interrogate the guy he was chasing?" He said

"Of 'course, I don't think that guy would have been chasing him without a reason." Camus nodded and got in and the cars drove away.

From the shadows Culgan sighed, Seed was in trouble, but not from the police. 

Back at the station, the red headed young man was being interrogated, he was sitting at a desk, Camus and Miklotov on the other side, it was Miklotov's turn to be the bad cop.

"Dammit! Whats your name!" Shouted Miklotov

"I told you, Seed!" Miklotov scoffed

"Yeah right, like that's your name, what kind of a dumb ass name is Seed?"

"What kind of a dumbass name is Miklotov?"

"He prefers being called Mikki." Said Camus "Coffee?" he said, offering the young man a cup of steaming purple-ish liquid that quite frankly did not look even remotely like coffee. 

"Thanks- I mean NO! I will not rake your coffee or this crap, I will not say another word 'til my lawyer is present!" Said Seed, crossing his arms defiantly

"Dammit boy! I'll kick yo' ass!" Shouted Miklotov, rising from his seat, obviously enjoying his role as bad cop a little too much. Camus then saw Gorudo standing outside, he beckoned for the two to come over, Camus grabbed his friend and led him outside.

"Yes sir?" Camus asked when they had got outside

"Found anything out?" Said Gorudo, looking out at Seed through the window, the young man was flicking them off.

"No sir."

"I didn't think you would, plus someone called with his bail."

"We can't let him out now! He hasn't even been incarcerated yet." Miklotov said

"Hey, asshole, was I talking to you?" Said Gorudo in a hostile tone "Anyway, money is money and this guy was offering a lot of it so we're letting him out." Camus and Miklotov nodded and walked into the interrogations booth.

"Your free to go." Said Miklotov, downcast, a triumphant grin spread across Seed's face as he walked past them.

"Bye gents." He grinned. He was then escorted from the building.

"Jesus, I can't believe this, he was one of our only leads." Said Camus, generally pissed off and disappointed, Miklotov was just pissed off.

"I can't believe Gorudo is so corrupt, he thinks he can break the rules just 'cause some slime ball shows some money?"

"Obviously so, c'mon its late, we're not even on duty anymore, I'll by you a drink." said Camus patting his friend on the shoulder as the two walked out.

Seed walked around the bend and was immediately met with his tall friend Culgan and an even taller man, a man who's name cast fear into the hearts of even the toughest men like Seed. Luca Blight. Seed bowed down instantly.

"Thankyou for getting me out of there sir." He said, head bowed down. He knew what would come next, he felt the but of a rifle slam into his jaw, he fell to the ground, still not looking into the face of his attacker, but he felt the rifles barrel press firmly against his skull

"Don't thank me boy." Said Luca "Thank your friend here, he was the one who persuaded me not to kill you." With that Luca sent a swift kick to Seeds face, knocking him backwards. The young man got up and wiped blood from his mouth, he looked up and saw Luca walking away. "Report back to Blight Arms three hours, don't be late, both of you." He said and walked out of the alley and into a black Limo.

"Your one lucky son of a bitch." Said Culgan "When I got caught, I got shot in the leg."

"Why the punishment though?" Asked Seed "Its not like I was on the job."

"Luca doesn't like bailing, he doesn't like to keep alive operatives who've been in jail because they might have said something they shouldn't." Said Culgan, getting out a mobile phone. "I'll call us a cab." And with that the two walked out of the alley.

Meanwhile, unknown to them, two figures were watching, one was the tall form of Viktor, the other was a shorter woman wearing a red suit. She turned to her tall companion

"He acted rashly." She said

"Who, Flik?" Said Viktor "C'mon Valeria, cut the guy some slack. Those bastards killed his fiancée." 

"Even so." Said Valeria "By doing this we're going to have to start our plans early, they're onto us, I can tell."

"Whatever happens, we're going to have to rub out that cop. I can tell he's gonna get too involved." Said Viktor, and with that, the two disappeared into the night.


	4. A letter

Chapter 4

"I don't even like coffee." Said Miklotov, looking tentatively at his mug of steaming brown liquid.

"Why did you agree to come then?" Said Camus, his voice trailing off as he checked out a particularly good looking waitresses behind

"'Cause I wanted to keep you company." Said Miklotov

"And you bought three cups because…?" Camus asked, his voice trailing off on purpose this time

"Because I like to shop." Camus snorted into his coffee, Miklotov scowled "Shut up." Camus was about to say something when he saw someone familiar, she was a short, very good looking woman, she had platinum blonde hair and large blue eyes, she had a pale complexion that only added to her innocent allure. Camus gulped

"Don't look now bud, but there's your ex girlfriend." He said, Miklotov went pale

"Hide me." He choked

"What?"

"Hide me, I can't let her see me, it would be awkward" he said, climbing under the table and hiding himself in Camus' jacket

"And this isn't awkward?" Said Camus, but before he could kick Miklotov from his hiding place the young woman saw him, she waved at the fair haired policeman and walked purposefully over.

"Hey Camus." She said, sitting down "I haven't seen you in ages, your looking good." She said, batting her come hither eyelashes

"Likewise." Said Camus, grinning nervously 

"You didn't really hang round while me and Miklotov were dating, I never got a chance to get to know you…" She moved her leg forward in order to play footsy and it connected with Miklotov "What the!?" She exclaimed.

Camus broke into a sweat, why the fuck did his friend have to be so petty and stupid, why couldn't he have faced the situation like an adult? Why the hell did he have to hide under the table? And now she'd found him, Camus wasn't going to bail his ass, but when he looked down and saw the desperate expression on his friends face, he knew he had to do something.

"Emma, don't say anything please but, this guy is a drug baron I just hauled in, I'm taking him back to the station and I decided to get some coffee." He said, lying rather well for someone in his situation, Emma's surprised expression turned to delight and excitement

"You can trust me officer." She said, bending in close to Camus and kissing him on the cheek, "Call me." She said quietly and walked away. Camus sighed, and grabbed Miklotov roughly, Camus' jacket still covering his head, and pushed him out the restaurant (if that is what you could call it.). Once outside, Miklotov removed the jacket and pushed it roughly into Camus' arms.

"I cannot believe that woman!" He said, raising his arms in the air dramatically "She was all over you!"

"Jesus Mikki! This is not about that, this is about me lying to you and you becoming a mature adult, that was the fucking stupidest thing I have ever seen!" He said as the two walked down to Camus' apartment, it was heading towards evening and they were going to watch the game and have a few beers, but Miklotov was no longer in the mood.

"I mean, we only separated four weeks."

"That's ample time for her to get interested in your better looking friend." Said Camus, smirking, Miklotov had to hold himself back, Camus noticed his friends annoyance "Dude, she was a skank, don't worry about it." He said, hoping Miklotov hadn't heard here ask him to call her.

"I'm glad she didn't ask you too call her." Said Miklotov finally, a little _too _convenient, Camus thought, but he was still thankful.

They walked up the steps of his apartment, he opened the door and moved down the corridor to his apartment. The two walked inside and sat down on his couch, the apartment was spacious and covered with junk Camus' had picked up while drunk, there a tire hanging on the wall, a basketball carved out, cleaned and used as a bowl and other stupid things. Miklotov did not approve, his apartment was completely clean, practically everything put in categories, however he kind of enjoyed the stark contrast, it made a nice change as loathe as he was to admit it.

Camus switched on the game and opened a can of beer, suddenly they heard a knock at the door, Camus walked over, whoever it was knocked again

"Coming!" Camus shouted and he opened his apartment door. No one was there, but there was a letter. Camus checked right and left, trying to see who was there, he then bent down and picked up the letter, opening it. It said

"Dear Mr policeman, 

We need to talk, meet me at the docks tomorrow at ten o'clock. We have important matters to discuss." 

Camus looked puzzled and pocketed the letter. He walked back into the apartment and sat down.

"Who was that?"

"Girl scout, she was selling cookies."

"And you didn't buy one?"

"No."

"Ass."

The two sat in silence for a bit, watching the game and drinking their beers, then Miklotov turned to Camus almost halfway through the game

"Camus?" He said

"What?" Said Camus, not taking his eyes off the game

"Do you find Emma attractive?" 

"Shut up and watch the game Mikki."

"Answer the question." Said Miklotov, annoyed at being called by his nickname

"Look, who can't find that little minx attractive, but seriously, I'm not gonna do anything." Miklotov seemed unsure but let it slide and eased back into his seat.

A little later, Miklotov left for his own apartment, he hadn't really been watching the game, he'd been thinking about Emma, its not that he missed her, its that she acted so flirtatious with Camus, he wondered whether she had ever been unfaithful to him during their relationship. He walked the short distance to his apartment and did something he had never don before, he flopped down on his bed, he didn't get changed or take a shower or put his shoes neatly by the door, he just flopped limply onto his bed and with a groan of

"Life sucks."

Fell asleep.

Camus meanwhile, was mulling over the letter, he did not know who it could be from, could it be a trap? He didn't know but he wanted to try and find out, however unlike his friend, Camus had to think situations out before taking any risks. He sat for ten minutes thinking about different ways he could die and then walkec out his apartment.

Due to the beers he had drank, Camus didn't take the car, he instead walked the short distance to the dicks, the night air was serene and cool, it felt really nice, it would have sounded nice had the gull and waves not been drowned out by the curing of drunk dock workers and the sounds of a young couple copulating behind a dumpster. Camus walked on, he didn't know why but he knew he wouldn't meet the messenger here, he walked on until the swearing and panting stopped and it was just him, standing on the gravel, listening to the wind on the almost calm waters, he heard footsteps and turned round quickly, he didn't have his gun, he never took it with him off duty, he wished he had it now. He saw the silhouette of a broad shouldered man walking towards him, when he came closer Camus was able to make him out, he was average to short in height and muscular, he had a man of untamed black hair and his face was smiling.

"Hey buddy." He said, Camus looked puzzled

"Who are you?" he said, but the man just smiled and winked as Camus felt the stick smash off the back of his head, he fell to the floor and his world went black…


	5. Blows to the head

Chapter 5

Flik sat in his jail cell, his face in his hands. He had failed her, he had failed to exact vengeance on the Highland Mafia, he was waiting for his court case, he didn't know how long he would be put away for, but he knew one thing, attempted murder and assault of a police officer was definitely going to put him away for a long time. By that time it would all be over and he wouldn't have had the chance to kill that dog Luca Blight. He fell backwards, letting the surprisingly soft bed break his fall, he stared at the bland ceiling and remembered, he remembered the pain he had felt when Viktor, covered in blood, had told him of Odessa's death. He had never even got to say goodbye.

On that day, he lost all sense of self and lived only for vengeance, to kill the Highland Mafia, its what Odessa would have wanted, right? Suddenly he heard someone enter his cell, he stood up was instantly dwarfed by the lanky Miklotov, the dark haired man had an angry look on his face, at least four veins and his forehead were having a competition to see which one would burst first and his large fists were clenched.

"I need to ask you something." He said, his voice deceptively calm, Flik remained indifferent, emotion might give Miklotov an advantage if a fight ensued, and the policeman certainly looked like he was spoiling for one. However, he kept his composure and motioned for Flik to take a seat, Flik did so and so did Miklotov, he took a moment before he continued, studying the inmate with a scrupulous glare before saying "My friend went missing a few days ago, Gorudo hasn't authorised a search so whatever I ask you is strictly off the record." He said, Flik was not quick to trust however saying

"How can I be sure?"

"No badge, no tape, C'mon, I just need your help." He said, though Flik didn't trust this man, he wanted to find out more, he assumed he was talking about that cop that had stopped him from killing that Highland Mafia dog

"Fine." He said

"Not even a video camera, I switched them all off before coming in here." Said Miklotov, as if to add extra reassurance "Anyway, my friend went missing, I think this has something to do with the Highland Mafia." The without warning he said "So who do you work for?"

"I dunno what your talking about." Said Flik, feigning a look of contempt, although he was inwardly nervous that this cop had guessed that he wasn't a lone assassin. 

"Oh please, you get arrested and then three days later my friend, who just happens to be the one who nailed you goes missing. We all know you've got a something against the Highland Mafia as you were chasing that Seed fella', all I need ifs proof and when I get it, 'cause I will, your going down. The judicial system doesn't like terrorist groups or whatever your involved in, you'd go down like a fucking sack of potatoes." Miklotov smirked "Tell me now and the courts don't ever need to know, you'll go down for assault of a police officer and attempted murder but that's it, they don't need to know about your friends."

"You're sharp." Said Flik "Ok, I'll tell you, but if you tell a soul…"

"You'll what? Get ass raped by a big guy in high security, that's what." Said Miklotov, his smirk widening, he had learned a lot about intimidation from Camus "You don't have much of a choice, but you have a better chance not getting nailed for that too if you tell me. I won't lie to you, you can't trust anyone now, now that you've attacked one of the Highland Mafia." Flik was a little lost for words, hut recovered quickly 

"I work for a group trying to overthrow the Highland Mafia, you have to stupid not to know they practically run this city." Miklotov nodded, though he didn't like to think so, it was certainly true, Flik continued "I dunno what happened to your friend, but I do he's a dumb fuck who's gonna get in over his head in a war if he doesn't back out."

"It may be too late…" Miklotov mused sadly, he was about to say something else when suddenly three shots rang out, one missed Miklotov's head and he dived down, pulling Flik down with him in order to dodge more shots.

Miklotov crawled out a little to see their assailant, drawing his gun, he looked up and saw a man with ridiculously spiky grey hair, how did he get past security? Miklotov though, even if I did switch the security camera's off, he had to have got past the security guards. Then he realised this man was probably from the Mafia, and they had no qualms about killing anyone who got in their way. Miklotov flinched as another shot sent pieces of plaster flying from the wall, however, neither man said a word, in order not to betray their position. Miklotov heard foot steps, he lay still, under the cells bed, both men were not even breathing in order to stay silent and throw off their enemy. The silver haired man stood in the middle of the room, confused, before he bent down to check under the bed. 

Miklotov saw his chance and rolled out from the other side and leapt to his feet, shooting at the man, the silver haired Mafia gunner leapt aside but got a bullet to the arm, he dropped his gun from a mixture of shock and pain, gripping his arm, he then whipped out a knife and leaped over the bed at Miklotov, he instantly knocked the tall policeman over and the two began a wrestle on the ground, fighting for the upper hand, whoever this man was, Miklotov thought, he fights like a tiger. 

Soon though, the assassin was able to get the upper hand was pinning Miklotov down with one hand, his other one was being gripped by Miklotov in an attempt to stop him from stabbing him, but the assassin was stronger and was beginning to edge the blade closer to his face, suddenly, the policeman rolled sideways, knocking the assassin over, he then aimed a viscous kick at the silver haired man which was dodged, but it gave Miklotov time to grab his gun, the silver haired man lunged and Miklotov shot.

He looked down to see the man lying dead on the floor, blood soaking his designer suit. He then looked frantically round the room, Flik was gone, he had obviously escaped without security to stop him as they had probably all been killed my this hitman. He was so fucked when Gorudo found out. Sighing he left the cell in order to report to Gorudo what had happened. 

He walked into the police building and towards Gorudo's office, entering without knocking, he immediately saw someone he recognised, a tall man wearing an expensive coat and suit, he was having a cigar with Gorudo.

"Leon Silverburg." Miklotov said, then looked at Gorudo "Whats he doing here?"

"He and his buddies made me an offer I couldn't refuse." Grinned Gorudo, puffing on his cigar "Oh and Miklotov, we won't be needing you anymore, bye bye." He grinned, leaning back in his seat, he and Leon laughed as Miklotov was grabbed from behind and felt the butt of a rifle slam into his face.

Camus awoke to the sound of loud footsteps, he looked down and saw he was tied to a chair, he had been for about three days now, waking up for a few hours to almost pitch black he seemed to be in a dank cellar and suspected he had been left to die here as no one had come down, however now the large form of Viktor opened the door, followed by a slim female with long brown hair.

"Hi." He said "So you finally took time out of your busy schedule to come down here and tell me why the fuck I'm attached to a chair?"

"Shut up." Said the huge Viktor "We'll do the talking here." Camus grinned, this guy watches too many movies, he chuckled to himself "You find something funny?" Said Viktor, bringing his angular face closer to Camus' until the policeman could smell the whiskey on his breath, Camus smiled

"No, Clint." He then wished he hadn't as the mans meaty fist buried itself in his gut, he gasped with surprise, however he had avoided being winded by tensing his stomach, however despite the punch he had just received, Camus was able to remain jovial "Whats… Wrong? You were so cheery on the docks just before your friend here knocked me out with a two by four." He said, straining to get his breath back, the punch had not winded him but had certainly come as a shock and he took a couple of seconds to recover. At this, the tall, brown haired woman spoke, as she walked into the light, Camus saw that she was breathtakingly beautiful, with long, full hair and an almost perfect face, she was also very well endowed which caused Camus to grin as she moved into his vision, even in a precarious situation such as this he remained just a little juvenile.

"Neither of us are in a good mood Mr policeman." She said "We've just hear word that the cities police department has now been taken over by the Highland Mafia, meaning our colleague is dead."

"Who? The short tempered guy with the band round his head? Who cares, the guys a maniac!" Camus said and then received a swift punch to the face by Viktor

"You shut your mouth!" He shouted, grabbing Camus' collar "If he's dead I'll make sure you pay!" He raised his fist back for another punch but the attractive woman, Valeria, placed a delicate looking hand on his elbow and he grudgingly put his arm back by his side.

"You know I'm not too happy about this either." Said Camus quietly "But why am I down here?"

"You're a respected officer." Said Valeria, a fuming Viktor stepping back into the shadows "And your getting involved in an inevitable war, you could tip the balance. We don't want that."

"I'm not gonna stand by and watch more testosterone driven nut jobs jeopardise people lives." Camus said, his lip swollen and bloody from the punch he had received. Valeria looked at him with amusement

"Is that what you think of us, 'testosterone driven nut jobs'?"

"Damn straight woman."

"We're more than that, much more, Flik is just a little hot headed, he's one of our best men."

"You guys must be pretty pathetic, he was an amateur." Said Camus, grinning at the shadow veiled form of Viktor, daring him to take another swing, the big man did nothing

"We'll talk later, I have more pressing matters to attend to." Said Valeria, walking away "Just to make sure you don't try and escape we're going to have to put you to sleep 'til we next have a little chat." She said, walking towards the door. "Our budgets a little tight so we can't afford gas."

Camus sighed, he knew what was coming, he felt the cosh smash over the top of his head and once again he fell into fitful unconsciousness.


	6. Under the board walk

Chapter 6

Viktor's eye twitched. Something he had started doing more in the last two hours than he had ever done in his life, he was sitting in an abandoned office that lead to the buildings cavernous cellar, which was where they were holing that pretty boy policeman up. The job was relatively easy, he just had to wait around, making sure the policeman didn't escape while Valeria went to find information on Flik. There was one snag, one hitch that had made the last potentially easy two hours a living nightmare for the big man. The singing. 

The young cop had took in upon himself to sing very loudly up the stairs, his voice easily penetrating the door, he had gone through an entire The Clash album and was now singing a very loud, soulful and disgusting rendition of Under the Board Walk, Viktor was close to snapping, when he heard the cop actually lower his voice for the quasi solo during the chorus. Viktor exploded inwardly, by doing that and the harmony he was unbalancing the melody and throwing himself off beat, that was not how it was done! Viktor knew he had to right this wrong leaped out in time, swinging madly on the handle of the door and throwing his arm out dramatically singing in a booming, piercing and quite frankly, beautiful voice the last line of the chorus.

Camus grinned and stopped singing

"You turned down Broadway to be a terrorist? You must be a dedicated lawbreaker." He winked, Viktor then realised that he was hanging from the door handle like a showgirl, he blushed and stood up straight

"Shut the fuck up boy." He said, about to turn round "And stop singing."

"I will totally stop singing if you let me free or bring me a coffee." Said Camus "I'm annoying you know." He added matter of factly, Viktor remained silent, looking in a hostile manner at the young policeman, Camus saw this as a sign and after a deep intake of breathe began singing Rappers delight. Viktor had had enough.

"You want coffee?" He said, a mad look in his eyes "Here's your coffee!!!!" He then leaped back into the office, picked up his mug that had been left neglected for two hours because Camus' singing had put him off food and drink and threw it and its lukewarm liquid at the bound form of Camus, it missed. Camus smirked.

"Why Ed, are we cross?" he said, imitating Val Kilmer in Tombstone. Viktor was about to leap once more when suddenly he heard a loud voice.

"Viktor!" It was obviously a man, his voice sounded relatively young. Camus saw the man illuminated by the light at the top of the staircase, he was tall and thin, long bangs of black hair falling over his handsome face. "What the hell are you doing you dolt!?" The man shouted, his voice was very charismatic and carried around the room. "We need this man!"

"I'm sorry." Viktor said, sheepishly. This was quite an amusing sight as, judging by the size difference, Viktor could have probably snapped the young man like a twig, however his head was hung a little and his face was a mask of embarrassment

"I don't care how tanked you are!" Shouted the young man "That man is very important and we don't need him suffering from brain damage after the beating you were about to give him." He pointed at Camus who had a bruised jaw from a punch he had received a few hours earlier.

"Jesus Shu, we don't need him!" Shouted Viktor, gaining his confidence "He's just some dumb cop."

"Don't question me." Said Shu a little quieter than before "You and your little band of merry men would be nothing without me." He said, Viktor stared down at the man threateningly and merely said

"I'm going to look for Valeria." And he left.

Camus looked up at the man as he walked down the steps towards him.

"You gonna beat me up too?" He said, pretending he hadn't heard the conversation "'Cause I swear, one punch and I'll sing a James Brown song." He said, the man called Shu chuckled

"I'm not going to beat you up Bobby." He said, Camus was horrified that he knew his name. "I just want to talk."

Miklotov awoke on the floor, his face pressed against cold ground. He went to get up but every thing was so stiff and his head hurt way too much, he got into a sitting position and clutched his head, pain surging through it. When his eyes had focused he realised he was not alone in the room, he looked to his left and immediately darted in the opposite direction when he saw the dead body of the silver haired man he had killed a few hours ago (he guessed as it was now dark out the window), he looked at the man, a look of horrible pain on his blood splattered face, Miklotov looked disgusted when he heard a voice behind him

"Solon Jhee." Said the quiet, slightly hoarse voice "A very respected assassin, you must be a ferocious fighter to have killed him." 

Miklotov spun round and saw a very tall man standing behind him, he had similarly silver hair as the dead man, however it was not ridiculously spiky. He wore very fashionable clothing and at his side was a gun, however his hand did not move for it when Miklotov stood sharply up, he merely looked at the alarmed officer with a hint of amusement. Miklotov considered taking him down and going for the door, which he noticed was opened, however the cool voice brought him from his musings

"Wondering why the door is open?" Said the calm man "Well firstly Solon smashed the locks when he tried to kill you and that charming gentleman who escaped, and secondly because I am a quick draw artist." He paused for effect "I could nail you before you even thought of doing anything." He said finally in an even but slightly warm voice, which was cold in itself that this man could talk about killing someone so calmly.

"How do you know about the other man?" Said Miklotov, not sure whether this man was bluffing about the quick draw thing, he remained cautious.

"A few of our men saw him hurtling out of the holding cell block just as they entered the main building." Said the man, there was a few seconds silence, Miklotov looked at him warily and he looked at Miklotov with a calm look that oozed menace before smiling and extending his hand "My name is Culgan by the way, John Culgan." Miklotov didn't know what to say, a man who for all intents and purposes was perhaps going to kill him was extending his hand in friendship, or what could be perceived as friendship at least. Miklotov took his hand slowly and shook it

"J, Julian Miklotov." He said, his voice hoarse from spending some time on the floor. Culgan nodded, still smiling

"My friend Seed will be down shortly as I have some pressing matters to attend to, I just had to meet you, a man who can defeat Solon Jhee is certainly a force to be reckoned with." He said, then heard someone walking down the corridor "And that'll be my dear Seed now. Well goodbye Julian Miklotov." He said nodding at the stunned policeman as he walked out the cell, a shorter, fiery haired man walking past him into the cell.

"So, this is the guy who killed Solon." He said, grinning, Miklotov gasped and recognised him at once as the man who was being chased by Flik down Muse highstreet, the red haired man continued before Miklotov could say anything "I'll be looking after you for the next few days before Luca decides whether he's gonna kill you or not, asshole." He said, Miklotov grinned

"And what makes you think you can hold me here, your friends a quick draw artist, what have you got?" he said, feeling a lot more confident, then suddenly Seed leaped forward and landed a powerful kick to Miklotov's chest, the big man fell backwards and hit the wall, before he could retaliate Seed was on him, zapping him painfully in the chest with a taser in order to stop him struggling. 

Miklotov felt his strength ebbing away, Seed grinned as he began to expertly bind Miklotov with a thin but strong cord, he wrapped it round the tall cop's chest, knees, wrists and neck.

"With technology." Seed said as if to answer Miklotov's earlier question "And a little ninja ass kicking skills on the side. Oh and I wouldn't try to struggle." He added "That cord will slice through you, cutting the sensitive veins in your wrists and neck, causing you to bleed to death." He then nodded at the helpless cop.

"Good day" And left the room. Well, thought Miklotov, at least he was more polite this time.

Flik collapsed against a wall, panting and wheezing, he had been running through the city for hours, making his way through backstreets and alleys, knowing the Mafia was going to be on his heels in no time soon, he was surprised he was alive at all. He slid down, wheezing, his face in his hands, trying to wipe off the sweat, there was no point in running anymore, he thought, he may as well die here, he could go on no longer. He was then wrenched from his morbid train of thought by a voice

"Yo mister." Said the voice, it obviously belonged to a child, he looked to his left and saw a boy walking out of the shadows of an alley, he had brown hair and was wearing a purple shirt and was carrying a small, white lizard, he looked to be in his early teens. He walked over to the exhausted Flik "You ok?" He said, bending down to look at the man in the eye

"Get outta here kid." Said Flik, his voice sounding a little laboured "Your gonna get hurt." The boy was not phased 

"Dude, you need to get cleaned up." He said "I saw you on the news, you tried to kill that Mafia guy, too bad the pigs caught ya." He said, his voice quite cheerful despite the morbid surroundings of the dank alley. Flik grinned at the kids remark

"You gonna turn me in kid?" He asked, standing up shakily

"No way man! I hate the police, they suck." He said and his lizard gave an affectionate retch

"Well thanks kid, I'll see ya around." He said, about to walk out the alley, when suddenly the white lizard gave a fearful squawk and suddenly there was gunfire ricocheting off the walls, Flik leaped into the alley the boy had come from, grabbing the kid and pulling him in with him. "Shit, they've found me!" He shouted as they ran into the alleys behind the club district. The boy then suddenly stopped in front of a back door, Flik looked at him exasperated. "Dammit boy, they'll kill you, c'mon!" However the kid merely produced a key out of his jeans pocket and quickly opened the door. Beckoning for Flik to follow, without thinking he did so and pulled the door shut behind him, the kid locking it from the inside.

"We'll be safe here." He said "My dad lives here, they definitely won't try anything." He said, walking to the fridge of a small but neat kitchen, he opened the door and pulled out a soda, he offered Flik one but he declined.

"Make yourself at home, any enemy of the police and the Mafia is a friend of mine." He said, Flik nodded woth gratitude

"My name's Flik" He said, the kid grinned

"Good to meet ya, my names Futch."


	7. A shameful evening

Chapter 7

The handsome man called Shu sat across from Camus, his eyes full of shrewd interest, his face remaining indifferent. Camus was now freed from his bonds as Shu had kindly cut the ropes, then brought a haggard looking seat from a dark recess in one of the corners of the cellar. He had sat down, saying nothing and they had been like this for a few moments before Camus said

"You know I could punch you out and escape."

"I know." Shu replied calmly with a hint of what Camus thought was amusement in his voice.

"So what the fuck…?" he said, trailing off as an opening for Shu to explain himself, the young man just smiled knowingly. 

"But Bobby." He said "Don't you want to know why you've been beaten up and kept down here." 

"I don't care as long as I get regular visits from that hot brown haired chick instead of that mentally unstable man-bear." Camus said bitterly, though what he said was obviously a joke, Shu laughed

"Oh you are funny aren't you." He said "Is it your reputation that makes you act stupid?" He added, still chuckling "Because I know full well your not, I know all about you. And your impetuous friend." He then said, all amusement gone from his voice.

"What do you mean?" Said Camus seriously, Shu stared at him with a similar intensity and said

"I have been keeping tabs on you, you and your less intelligent friend are two of the only Highland police officers who would be able to resist corruption."

"Oh." said Camus, he was not sure about what Shu had just said but didn't want to look stupid in front of this cocky man who seemed to ooze intelligence.

"I can understand you do not know what I'm talking about so I'll explain it simply. The Highland police force is going to be taken over by the Highland Mafia. Its probably happening as we speak, perhaps it already has." The mysterious young man said, standing up, betraying his impatience despite his calm composure. He continued at Camus' silence "We, we being the people who knocked you out and put you in a cellar, are a freedom movement, or terrorist, as you would call us. We have been working for nearly a year now, trying to thwart the Highland Mafia. We know have enough ammunition, men and resources to start a war with the Mafia." He said, pacing slightly

"So why do you have to tie me up and leave me down here."

"Because you're the least likely to succumb to corruption, and due to your excellent police record we thought you'd probably be a formidable ally, or adversary. We did not want you to tip the balance of power or act as a neutral force. So we tried to incapacitate you."

"Why didn't you want me to tip the balance of power? Don't you want to win, what if I chose your side?" Asked Camus, confused.

"That would indeed be an ideal plan, however if you were to choose their side, we were afraid you would tip the balance in their favour. It would be easier and simpler to just take you out of the game." He said, walking up the stairs.

"So why did you untie me?" Camus said after him

"Because I'm going to lock the door." Said Shu " And leave an armed guard by it as well, I just thought you'd be more comfortable not being tied to a chair." He said and walked up the last step and went to shut the door behind him, he then shouted back "If you try to escape you will be shot on site I'm afraid. Goodbye." He then shut the door just as Camus went to grab him and force his way out. 

He sighed and slumped down on the steps. Ah well, he thought to himself, better make the most of a bad situation. He then waited 'til he could hear the guard come in.

"Hey!" he shouted to get the guards attention. "You like Sinatra?"

"Nice place you got here." Said Flik for no apparent reason, the young boy Futch was now making himself a sandwich in a small, plain but ver neat kitchen, he offered one to Flik who declined with a shake of his head.

"We'll only have to stay here for a few hours." Said Futch "The Mafia hardly ever patrol the club district, they practically own it anyway, I think they feel its pretty secure." Flik nodded.

"Won't your dad be pissed off if he found me here." Said Flik after a few moments pause

"Hell no." Said Futch, beginning to make his way into another room. "My dad hates the Mafia, he'll be happy to help. Your not a pimp are you?" Futch then added slightly suspiciously.

"Do I look like a pimp kid?" Said Flik, Futch noticed his scruffy appearance and the grubby blue bandana stopping his sandy blonde hair falling into his eyes and shrugged.

"Just checking." He said, and walked into a sitting room, switching on a small TV. The sitting room was also small but surprisingly homely for where it was situated, there were pictures of the young boy Futch on the wall with a tall blonde man who Flik assumed was his father. There were also pictures of the blonde man with a brown haired beautiful brown haired woman with dazzling green eyes, but Flik didn't give them a second thought, Futch was watching south park. Flik laughed despite himself as Barbara Streisand turned into a huge mecha godzilla beast and began to trash the town. Futch turned to him, and saw that Flik was standing leaned against the doorframe laughing.

"You like south park?" He asked

"Yeah." Said Flik "I'm a bit ashamed of it actually." He said, his head slightly tilted, he was still grinning.

"Why?"

"I dunno, I guess its 'cause I'm an adult, adults don't watch this kind of stuff." He said, kind of lamely

"Jesus, will you make up your mind." Said Futch "First you adults say kids aren't supposed to watch this, now your saying neither are adults, this is one of the highest grossing comedy cartoons in america, so a hell of a lot of people have to watch it, which is it kids or adults?" He said, a little impatiently, Flik was a little taken aback, but then realised that this was a perfectly true and fair statement. He replied merely with a neutral

"Meh." 

And went back to watching the show, sitting himself on the carpet contentedly.

Miklotov awoke in a different room from before, the cold steel floor of the cell had been replaced with polished wood, the artificial lighting replaced from blazing sunlight from a nearby large window and the cold stone walls were now also wooden, like the floor, they were taking on a chestnut hue.

Everything about this room radiated warmth and for some reason Miklotov felt a little safer here, however he did not want to let his guard down for too long, tried to spring up but realised that he had been bound by a thin garrotte wire substance that would cut his main arteries before he even got up, however when he rolled aside he found that he was not gagged or bound, he was free, to an extent. Standing up cautiously he looked around and saw he was in a very nice but rather plain room, in the middle of the room was a very neat and luxurious four poster bed, on the wall was posters of crappy pop groups. Miklotov guessed this had to be a girls room, or this kid had to be shipped off to the army straight away. He was surprised when he heard someone enter the room, he span round, ready to fight but saw it was a girl, a short thin girl with raven black hair and a pale complexion, she was staring at him hard with her large blue eyes as she stood still, her hand still holding the door knob tentatively.

"Don't worry. Your safe." She said in a soft, soothing voice "I'm not going to hurt you." Miklotov was pretty hurt at the idea that she thought him so retarded that he was scared of a little girl

"Where am I?" He asked, 

"My room, hi, my names Jillia, and you must be Julian." Miklotov was a little taken aback, he was so used to being called Mikki by Camus, he had almost forgotten his own first name.

"And what am I doing in your room Jillia." He asked trying to keep calm.

"My brother thought this would be a good place to keep you while he tried to think what to do with you." She said, sitting on her bed slowly, her eyes never leaving Miklotov's "My room is protected by high tech security systems, you won't be able to get away I'm afraid." She added, Miklotov was horrified

"What if I held you hostage or killed you? Doesn't he care." He asked, clearly alarmed, Miklotov had never had any siblings of his own but imagined that they'd be a little better to each other.

"No." Said Jillia, without a hint of remorse in her voice "He just saw my room as a good place to hold you." She said "Whether I was in it or not. But you won't hurt me will you?" She said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement, Miklotov was taken aback once again. 

"How can you be so sure?" He said, suspiciously

"Oh, I'm just pretty certain you won't hurt me." She said, innocently enough, but Miklotov wasn't sure. He decided, however, that this girl was not a threat and sat down on one of the finely carved wooden chairs that dotted the room.

"So, who is your brother?" Asked Miklotov, he must be important, the tall cop thought, or else he wouldn't have high security guarding his sisters room.

"His name is Luca." She said it without any emotion in her voice but Miklotov gasped 

"Luca Blight?" He asked again, shakily

"Yes." She said, quietly, the bottom of Miklotov's stomach dropped out. That's it, he was dead, this madman was going to come in here and kill him. He sank into his chair and buried his face in his hands. Jillia walked over, concern in her eyes. "Whats wrong?" She asked

"Whats wrong!" Shouted Miklotov, standing up so fast he knocked his chair down "Whats wrong is that my girlfriend dumped me a few weeks ago, she then came onto my best friend right in front of me, my job has been taken over by the Mafia, I've been hit over the head more times than I can remember, my friend could be dead and I've got a headache!" There, he'd done it, all the fury that had been inside was now let out, to a terrified teenage girl. He was ashamed.

Flik was ashamed that he had just laughed his head off at a satellite coming out of a fat kids ass.

And Camus was ashamed at the guard outside the cellar's hate for Simon and Garfunkle.


	8. I can make them however I want, they nev...

Authors note: Thankyou everyone who has reviewed my story and kept me going. And I especially thank Eiji and Melissa for putting up with this crappy story and staying with it all this time. The story isn't over though, but I just wanted to say thankyou. And now…

Chapter 8

Jowy was running, he had never run this fast in his life but the tone in Riou's voice told him something was wrong. He ran through the back alleys he had come to know so well in the chinatown district of Highland city, making his way quickly towards his apartment. Without bothering with the intercom, he fumbled in his pockets for the keys and ran up the short flight of stairs to his apartment, opening the door quickly. He saw Riou standing there, a look of desperation and terror on his face. 

"Riou? What is it?" He asked, panting on the door step

"Nanami. She's gone." He said quietly, however his face was a mask of panic and dread. Jowy looked confused, brushing strands of platinum blonde hair out of his thin face.

"What?"

"I tried to call her on my way home but she didn't answer, when I got back the place was trashed and she's gone. So is Pilika." These words stabbed at Jowy's heart, his face froze with the same expression his tanned, dark haired friend had on his face.

"What… But she's just a little girl, what could they want with her?" He said, sitting down slowly. Riou massaged his face with his hands, he had always been a quick thinker and even now he had overcome stunned dread and was formulating a plan or answer, Jowy was more emotional and took the news harder, his eyes wide with terror. He turned to Riou, expecting some kind of answer from his level headed friend.

"They need her." He said, scratching his smooth chin "Jillia wants her." He said "She was like a daughter to her, she want's her back." He said, turning to Jowy. He became angry at these words

"No! Jillia wouldn't put Pilika's life at risk!" He said standing up, he was a little taller than his friend, though his arms were thin and his skin pale and a little sickly looking, Riou didn't look at all intimidated, he stared Jowy in the face

"She's a Blight Jowy and as far as I'm concerned they're all murdering fuckers." This set Jowy over the edge, he leaped forwards and attempted to punch Riou, who nimbly ducked and planted a punch of his own on his friends jaw, stunning him, the young man then tackled him to the floor, trying to pin him down as the blonde attempted to beat him up.

"Take that back dammit!" He shouted as his friend pinned him to the floor, Jowy tried to wrestle him off, he was able to get and arm free and pushed his friend off, going for his Bo staff, he leaped to his feet, clutching the pole-arm expertly, a thin trickle of blood running down his chin where Riou had just hit him.

"Jowy, c'mon we have more important stuff to do." Said the dark skinned teen, getting to his feet "We shouldn't be fighting each other." Jowy was outraged by what he had just heard, but knew his friend was right, he lowered his staff. "Besides, my grandfather told us not to use our martial arts on each other." Jowy nodded.

"Look, I'm just a little messed up you know, I mean we barely escaped with our lives." He said, Riou looked sympathetically at him, Jowy had been separated from someone he loved during their escape from the Mafia.

Riou and Jowy had been two of the Highland Mafia's most promising operatives. Riou had joined so that he could support his adoptive sister Nanami and Jowy had joined to support a young girl who's family had been killed by the Mafia called Pilika. All had went well until two events made things go horribly wrong. Firstly Riou found out he had a serious aversion to killing, and his obstinate refusal to kill caused him to have to run from his angry superiors. Jowy meanwhile had fallen in love with Luca Blight's sister Jillia, he had caught them in bed together and Jowy had had to leap from a window in order to escape. They were now on the run, living in utter terror of being caught for the last three months, their friendship seriously frayed thanks to this.

Riou then saw something from his window, out of the corner of his eye he saw a young man with blonde hair and wearing a jacket and grubby jeans run out of one of the abandoned buildings across the street. He looked left, then right, then ran down an alley laughing with mad triumph. Jowy heard the laughter.

"What was that?" He asked

"Um, just some mad dude." Said Riou

"So what are we gonna do?" Asked Jowy quickly afterwards.

"We can't get them back alone." Said Riou "We need help." But who would help them? He thought to himself, hopelessly.

"We could contact Tir! He said if we're ever in trouble to contact him, he'll help us out." Said Jowy happily, Riou then felt a little relief spread over him, Tir was a vigilante from the city of Gregminister, he had gotten rid of the Barbarossa Rugner crime wave. Riou went quickly to the phone and rang the number Tir had given him three years ago, surely enough a voice answered, it was evidently young but wary sounding.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Tir, it's me. Riou." There was a pause.

"Hi Riou." Said Tir a little quietly

"Tir, we need your help, we-" However Tir cut him off

"Listen, I'm in town, why don't we meet up." His voice sounded a little urgent "I'll come over to your place in an hour." He then quickly hung up.

"What did he say?" Asked Jowy, puzzled as to why Riou hadn't told him their dilemma

"He said he's meet us here in an hour." Said Riou, puzzled. Jowy shrugged and they sat down, impatiently waiting for their friend.

The door at the top of the cellar was smashed off its hinges, a chair flying into the small dilapidated office, the guard shouted, alarmed and went for his gun but before he could fire he was knocked across the floor by a fist, he looked up in time to see a handsome, blonde young man wearing a grubby red hooded jumper and jeans, his for lashed out, and the guard felt incredible pain in his crotch area, with a mad laugh the prisoner ran at great speed from the building. 

The guard groaned and lapsed into fitful unconsciousness.

Camus ran out the building laughing manically, unfortunately the guard had been snorting some crack at the time, as Camus barged through the door he had got a nostril full of it and was now experiencing the effects. He ran into the street, looked round so wildly he almost dislocated his neck and ran into another street as fast he could. In order to escape the pixies.

An hour later Riou heard a knock at the door, he walked over and opened it cautiously, standing there was a thin young man of about nineteen or twenty, with him was an incredibly tall man with wavy blonde hair that went over one eye, on his cheek was a cross shaped scar, he looked a little too surly as he walked into the apartment, following the young man closely. The young man was Tir McDohl, he hadn't changed much since he had thwarted the Barbarossa Rugner crime wave three years ago, he was tall for someone of his age and thin, his thick brown hair was obscured by a bandana over his head. He nodded to Riou and Jowy and sat down, the blonde haired man standing rigid next to him.

"You both remember Gremio?" He asked them, Riou and Jowy nodded "So, whats the problem." His voice had none of the urgency that it had on the phone an hour ago, in fact he looked a little bored.

"Well." Riou piped up "Nanami and a little girl called Pilika have been captured by the Highland Mafia."

"Your still on the run 'cause that idiot couldn't keep his fucking dick in his pants?" Tir sniggered, nodding his head at Jowy, who's face flushed. Riou felt anger rush through him, Tir had always been a dickhead. 

"Yes." He said, his voice shaking slightly

"So what do you want me to do about it?" He asked "I don't have any power in the neighbourhood, you know that."

"We just needed someone's help." Said Riou "Someone who's done this before."

"Look, Riou, I can't stay here too long, I'm on the run too remember. But listen, here are a few numbers of people that might take you in and help you in this town." He passes Riou a few pieces of paper with numbers on them. "That one right there." He said, pointing to one of the numbers "Belongs to Viktor, great guy. He'll help you for sure." Riou nodded his thanks and was about to say something when he was interrupted by a loud bang, and one of the windows smashed. Tir's face went white

"Fuck! They know I'm here!" He shouted, there was another shot and Gremio threw him bodily to the floor, covering him with his body, Tir stuck his head out of the tangle of arms and legs "Is there a back entrance!?" He shouted

"You'll have to go out of the fire exit!" said Jowy, on the floor himself, at this Tir leaped up, followed by Gremio and ran, pushing Riou to the floor to the fire exit. "We don't have time to get out that way!" Shouted Jowy over the gunshots

"C'mon!" Shouted Riou and the two made their way towards one of the windows, jumping down onto a dumpster, some of the excrement broke their fall. 

Riou was the first to get up, the sounds of the gunshots were dying down, he walked over to the wall and peeked over, at the front of the building were three men, shooting up at the floor they had been on, he turned to Jowy and gestured for him to follow. Silently they walked around the corner opposite and to relative safety, not bothered whether Tir had escaped or not.

"I don't remember him being such a fucker." Said Riou, panting for breath

"Well, its been three years." Said Jowy, clutching his ankle, which had been hurt in the fall. "SO what do we do now?" He asked, straightening up.

"There's not much we can do." Said Riou grimly. He noticed the paper scrunched up in his hand, the one with Viktor's number on it.

"I say we find this Viktor fella'." Said Riou, Jowy nodded in agreement and the two walked quickly out the alley.


	9. Short and not particularly sweet either

Chapter 9

Camus had come down from his crack trip in a dumpster where he had an enlightening conversation with a tramp about prison sex. He then went his merry way with only a bad headache to show for it. He rounded on the steps of his apartment building and was instantly met with a blood curdling wail, he leaped backwards just in time to dodge a flying black figure landing down before him, it rose up to its full considerable height, its skin pale, its hair the darkest black which matched with its clothes, its eyes a blood red and with a look of viscous malevolence, it stretched its claw out and said

"I am the Wampire!!" In a ridiculous Romanian accent, it then followed up with "I vant to suck your blood!" Camus sighed

"Get outta my way Jimmy." He said, the vampire gave him a stern look "Sorry, get out of my way, Neclord." He said with another impatient sigh, the vampire looks satisfied. Camus walked past him, pinching the bridge of his nose to stem the pain in his sinuses.

He walked into his room and flopped down on his bed, removing his shoes. He hadn't been in his apartment for days now. He knew he would be attacked again at some point but for now he just wanted to sleep.

He awoke with a start, sat up and rubbed his eyes, he looked at his watch and saw that he had only slept for two hours, yawning he got up and shaved, he had not shaved in a few days and stubble was beginning to mount on his chin, after shaving delicately he went to have another sleep, but then a knot of dread tightened in his stomach.

Miklotov. Was he dead, he had to find out right away, so despite the fact that his body was crying out in protest, Camus grabbed his hooded top and ran out the door, pushing a disgruntled vampire over on his way out.

Humphrey walked home briskly as he always did, it hadn't been very long since had got custody of Futch and he had wanted to look after the boy well, perhaps a little over protectively but he just didn't want to see any harm befall the kid. 

He walked around the alley that Futch had taken Flik earlier and walked down the small flight of steps to the grubby entrance to his house. The club he was a bouncer in had provided this for him, it was possibly the only club in the district not controlled by the Highland Mafia and he was glad for that, however it was only a matter of time before it was, therefor Humphrey had arranged for him and Futch to move to New York in the next two months as soon as he had enough money.

He opened the door with a grubby key and was met with the slightly loud sound of the TV, Futch was watching South Park again. He walked through the small but neat kitchen and moved into the living room.

"Hey Futch, what's up?" He said, sitting down heavily on the couch and removing his tie

"Nuthin'" Said Futch, still not taking his eyes from the TV "Oh except-" However he was cut off by the unmistakable sound of a door shutting, Humphrey stood up.

"Be quiet." He whispered, "we have an intruder."

"Yeah, that's what I was-" But he was cut off again as Humphrey left the room and began to move quickly but quietly upstairs

Flik left the bathroom after a refreshing shave and was instantly met with the angry eyes of the man on all those pictures in Futch's living room, the big man instantly gripped him by the collar and slammed him into the wall. He raised a large fist to strike but Flik was able to slide out of his assailants grip and the man's fist connected with the wall making a painful smashing noise, Flik saw his chance and leaped, the two went crashing to the ground and then rolled downstairs, bashing their heads off every step as they tried to gain the upper hand. They reached the bottom of the stairs and Flik felt a gun barrel press against his head, he looked up to see Futch pointing a sawn off shotgun at them

"Ok fella's." He said calmly "I think we all need to have a long chat."

Miklotov watched as the young girl fell asleep, he decided to stay as far away from her as possible, he had fervently apologised for his outburst but she was obviously still a little weary of him and he was kind of embarrassed so he decided to sleep in the corner of the neat room, his back uncomfortably pressed against the wall, he slid down a little. He had to get out of here. He didn't know what time it was, but it was obviously night time, the girl, Jillia, obviously wasn't going anywhere what with all the guards around her room. And neither was he apparently. But he had to do something.

Standing up slowly he moved his way to the door, looking through the keyhole, he saw that there were three guards there, and there might have been more as the rest of the corridor was obscured by the edge of the keyhole. He then walked over to the centre of the room and spotted an air grate not to far up. Trying not to make too much sound he stood on tip toes and pulled the grate off gently. It looked big enough for him to get through, so, utilising his height, Miklotov managed to pull himself up and into the air vent. It was not as dark as he would have expected, the main source of light was that from the other rooms, creeping into the vent. He moved along as quietly as possible when your on all fours until he heard a familiar voice. It was the same gruff, mocking voice that belonged to someone who was on Miklotov's personal hate list. Gorudo.

"Jesus Leon, I don't know what you see in him. He's crazy for christs sake!"

"Yes, but we need someone crazy to do the things his father could not." Said another voice, cold and bored, it obviously belonged to this Leon character "Plus he'll kill you if he hears you talking about him like that." Said the voice, Gorudo made a low growl as if he were about to swear but Leon interjected "Tea?" He asked quickly, Gorudo declined with a grunt. Miklotov kept silent. These two were obviously important members of the Mafia, Leon spoke of Luca as if he knew him, and Miklotov realised this must be the fabled genius Leon Silverburg. He gasped inwardly, that's why the Mafia were untouchable, if they had Leon on their side! Leon then spoke again.

"There's someone in the air vents." He said calmly "No doubt its that impetuous young fellow we brought in earlier." He said and Miklotov heard a pistol being loaded "Come out, or I'll shoot you." He said, Miklotov hadn't even had time to be surprised before he was forced to climb out of the air vent awkwardly and landed rather heavily on the floor. He looked up and saw the two men staring at him, Gorudo had a mixture of surprise and satisfaction on his face. Leon looked highly amused.

"My boy, that was possibly one of the most pathetic escape attempts I have witnessed." He said, his gun still pointed at Miklotov "But neither you or your friend have ever been famed for your subtlety."

"You dumb fuck." Grinned the huge bear-like Gorudo "Do you think we'd talk about anything secret here?" He said and indicated around the room "There's camera's everywhere, anyone could hear us. What if we had a traitorous security guard?" Miklotov said nothing

"No we have an entirely different place where we discuss such matters." Said Leon calmly "I shall be contacting a guard to take you to your cell" He went for a cell phone when there was a loud noise that rocked the building. All three men looked surprised, however Miklotov recovered first and leaped forwards, knocking Leon to the ground and going for his gun, Gorudo attempted to draw his own but the policeman shot him twice in his flabby neck, he screamed with pain and hit the floor, his ruptured voice box making a terrifying squealing noise totally alien to his massive form.

Leon got up quickly and was about to go for his shoulder holster when another explosion knocked both men to the floor, Miklotov dropped his gun and fell backwards, Leon however got a good hold of his and went to shoot the tall cop, Miklotov dodged the first shot and ran frantically to the door, before he reached it, he felt a bullet rip through his calf, he screamed with pain and fell forwards, he span round and saw Leon putting another clip into his gun with shaky fingers, however before he could do so his face drained of colour as he stared at something above Miklotov, he then ran from the room. Confused Miklotov looked up, but found it hurt to do so. Groaning with pain he felt himself being dragged from the room by strong arms, the pain in his leg was unbearable now. As he drifted into unconsciousness he saw a face that would remain in his memory and his heart forever.


	10. The plot thickens a bit

Chapter 10

"W, where am I…?"

"Your safe."

"My head…"

"Don't try and move, that bullet had a viral strain that got into your bloodstream, you'll be stiff for a few hours but we managed to get the poison out before it killed you."

"T, thankyou."

"Don't mention it. Just try and rest…"

"Mikki!!! Mikki!!!!" Shouted Camus, he had not been able to get hold of any contacts due to Highland Mafia's recent take-over of the city, so he had been forced to wander the streets shouting his friends name "Mikki! C'mon man, I'll stop calling you Mikki if you come out!!!" Suddenly a can was thrown at him, it connected with his knee, enraged, Camus leaped up and looked around to see who threw the offending can

"You better watch out foo'!" He shouted "I gots mad skillz!!!"

"Shut up Camus and get over here!" The young cop calmed down and looked towards an alley to see where the low voice had come from and he instantly saw the large blonde Humphrey peering round the corner.

Camus walked over and his bouncer friend grabbed him forcefully by the wrist and pulled him down some stairs, Camus went to shout but Humphrey's large hand quickly went over his mouth "Shut up you dumb fuck!" He hissed as he closed the door of the house he had just dragged Camus into "The Mafia are swarming the place, you wanna get us killed!" Camus broke from his grip

"What are you talking about!?"

"Someone went and blew up the fifteenth floor of the Blight arms building, they getting suspicious and swarming the city looking for the people who did it."

"I see." Said Camus "You haven't seen Miklotov have you?"

"No" Said Humphrey and Camus' face fell "But I know where he is!" Camus' face lifted and he did a little skip

"So he's not dead!" 

"No." Said Humphrey "But we're going to have to get out here fast, I'll take you to him, I need to take Futch and out guest somewhere safe anyway." Camus looked confused

"Your guest?" Then he saw him, Flik walked into view, and Camus leaped with a cry of "You bruised my perfect face with!!!" He jumped on top of Flik and began punching him, Humphrey pulled him off forcefully

"Stop it! He's a good guy, now come on!" Humphrey said, leading them to the door along with Futch "We've gotta be quiet." Camus looked over Humphrey's shoulder at Flik 

"I've got your number buddy." Flik scowled back

"You're going down…"

"Shut up, both of you!"

Miklotov awoke in a small, dimly lit room. He was sick of waking up in strange places, getting up he realised his bones and muscles seemed strangely lethargic and he was not able to rise with the same gusto as he had originally planned, he took a few steps and then fell limp and collapsed, what was happening to him? Then it came back to him, that beautiful face, the face of an angel and the conversation when he was half-conscious, there was something about poison… That must have been what was making him so weak, he tried to get up but he was still too weak. Suddenly the door opened and someone picked him up and helped him sit down in a chair in a corner of the small room. Miklotov looked up and saw an Indian man about his age looking down at him, he was obviously Sikh as he wore a large orange turban which contrasted with his dark suit 

"Calm yourself my friend, the poison has lasted longer than we anticipated. Just try not to move or you will only grow weaker." He said, Miklotov could barely nod, he heard the door open and light footsteps making their way towards him, looking up with considerable effort he saw her face, the beautiful woman he had seen before he blacked out, the one to had talked to him in his fitful half slumber. He saw the tall Sikh walk over to her and talk quietly, she nodded and he walked out the room. She walked closer and sat down in a chair opposite him, he saw her face closer this time, she looked a lot like Emma, sharing the same large sapphire eyes and glossy platinum blonde hair, she was short and pail but beautiful nonetheless, she smiled at him, she had a smile that made her whole face light up and only added to her beauty, Miklotov was transfixed, however he wasn't going to be able to look anywhere else as his head felt like a lead weight and moving it would make it topple off his frail neck.

"Hello." She said in a soothing voice "I expect your wondering where you are?" She asked, Miklotov nodded slowly "Well my name is Teresa, I'm an agent for the anti Mafia resistance movement."

Miklotov then realised he had seen her before, she was the mayor of the city's daughter Teresa Wisemail!

"So you recognise me?" She said with a hint of amusement in her voice, obviously noticing the look of exclamation on Miklotov's thin features "Yes, being the daughter of the mayor means I can't do a lot of field work in case I'm recognised but I try and do what I can." She said, a little distantly "I'm sorry, this isn't about me. I'll explain as much as I can, you deserve that much. At the moment your at one of our safehouses where we meet and discuss our plans."

And so Teresa explained everything Shu had explained to Camus, when she finished Miklotov was able to utter one word.

"Camus…?" Teresa smiled sadly at this 

"I'm afraid we don't know what happened to your friend, he was captured because unlike you he was more of a threat, we were sure you'd join our cause but he was a bit more unpredictable." However before she could say anything else someone ran into the room, Teresa turned around and was looking into the face of a handsome blonde young man, his straight hair was tousled and his red hoodie was very grubby but he didn't seem to care as he scanned the room, he then saw Miklotov in the corner and a huge grin spread on his face

"Mikki!!!!" He shouted and ran over and hugged his friend, Miklotov could feel his back snapping before Teresa grabbed Camus' arm.

"Don't be too rough, he was injected with poison, he's still weak." Camus let go but the grin was still on his face

"Aw man I thought you were dead!" 

"Hi Teresa" Said a young voice, Teresa turned and smiled at Futch as he entered with Humphrey and a very paranoid looking Flik accompanied by the tall Sikh.

"Hello everyone, you all know Shin?" She asked beaming at the newcomers, they all nodded, looking at the tall Indian man. "Well I think you all know why you're here." She said a little more seriously, Camus could see more people filing into the room, he realised there must be some kind of conference going on. Teresa continued "Shu will be here shortly with the details, until then sit tight, this is going to be a big job, bigger than our rescue attempt."

Camus didn't know what was going on (something he had become accustomed to in the past few days) but he was sure he wasn't going to like it.


	11. Low blow

Chapter 11

It was at this point that Shu entered with Viktor and Valeria, Camus' eyes widened as he saw them, Shu saw him and smiled in a smug sort of way

"Ah Camus, there you are. You may stay Miklotov, however you Camus are to be detained, your too dangerous."

"_I'm_ dangerous!?" Camus exploded "I'm not the one who's planning to kill people! Even if they are criminals this is illegal!" He said, suddenly realising how mad he must look, he was standing wide eyed with the worst hair day he had ever had and excrement all over his clothing. She chuckled, while Flik and Humphrey looked a little wary of the angry police officer, Miklotov was beginning to regain his strength and attempted to sit Camus down, Camus shrugged his hand away, never taking his eyes off the amused Shu

"You've really hit the nail on the head this time." He said "And that's why you need to be detained, your too unpredictable."

Teresa looked at him, like a nurse would look at a terminally ill patient

"Please realise that this is for your own good, soon the city will be rid of those evil people."

"You can't kill them!" Camus shouted "You'll be as bad as them!"

"And what do you suggest we do?" Said Shu, smirking this time "Let you arrest them? Haven't exactly been doing a good job have you?" Camus clenched his fists, then suddenly grabbed Miklotov by the shoulder and pulled him upright

"We're leaving." 

"What?" Said Shu and Teresa together

"You heard me, we're leaving, now get the fuck out of my way." He said and attempted to walk forwards when Viktor barred his way

"Your not going anywhere buddy." He said with a hint of menace

"Oh yeah?" Said Camus before lashing his foot out a catching him a hard blow in the groin, he moaned with pain and fell to the floor. Then Camus leaped forwards with the still disoriented Miklotov in tow out of the room, he heard footsteps behind him but knew he had already got a good head start and they probably wouldn't get him.

They ran through the deserted corridors of the large building/safehouse until they reached the entrance, there were two guards standing there with their backs to the two cops. Camus gently sat Miklotov down in a chair in the lobby, picked up a fire hydrant and cracked it over the guards heads before they had any time to react, he then ran over and picked his friend up. They could hear footsteps now and Miklotov was strong enough to run so they got out of the building hastily running quickly into the street and into traffic.

Dodging cars they made it to the other side of the road and into an alley where Miklotov fainted, Camus dragged him behind a dumpster and hoped they weren't found. Miklotov couldn't run any more and Camus wasn't going to leave him. Shu would kill them in case they spread word about the rebels or whatever they were. Terrorists, Camus would call them. He knew if they were found it was indeed the end.

Riou and Jowy had not found anywhere to stay in the short time since they had escaped the firefight back at their rented apartment. They had no money and they were on the run, neither knew if that gunfire was meant for them or Tir but they weren't going to stick around, both ran to across the city to its industrial district which was the least patrolled by the Mafia.

"Fuck it man!" Hissed Jowy as they walked along "We need fucking money!" Riou punched his arm

"Stop saying that!" He said "Your like a freaking infant, I'll find some. If all else fails I'll sell you to some sailors."

Jowy froze with horror

"Well you're a good looking guy, I bet we could get about two hundred." Said Riou with hardly a trace of a smile on his tanned lips, Jowy still stood there transfixed with fear. Riou sighed

"I was joking asshole!" He said giving Jowy another punch on the arm. "Look I don't like it but we're going to have to mug that guy over there." He said, nodding towards a tall guy with blonde hair wearing a dishevelled red hoodie and ripped jeans that Kurt Cobain would have been proud of, he was standing over the passed out body of a tall guy who looked like a complete stiff in his work clothes. They were obviously wino's and Riou was going to take advantage of this as they wouldn't be too much of a threat in their drunken state.

He turned to Jowy. "C'mon" He more mouthed than said and led his blonde friend over.

"Hey buddy. Give us all your money and we won't have to kick your ass." He said, giving the man in the red hoodie a shove. The man turned round and Riou immediately realised they had made a mistake.

Viktor felt his crotch, counting

"One, two, yep they're all there. Man I am gonna kill that fucker." He wheezed, getting back to his feet, he was alone as the others had gone off to chase the two renegade cops, he was left to worry about whether he could still have children. Getting up he walked to the table and picked up his coffee, which he had brought to the meeting. 

He took a sip and before he knew it he realised he was humming under the board walk softly under his breath. He gave a shrug. 

"I wonder what did happen to the Drifters." He turned and saw Flik walk into the room.

"Did you get them?" Asked Viktor, Flik shook his head

"Nope, bastard got away." 

"Shit." Said the big man, sitting down and finishing off his coffee. Flik sat down as well.

"Every one else went home." He said simply

"I don't have a home Flik." Said Viktor, shrugging "No point a guess."

"You can crash at my place then, I got me a piece so we're protected." Flik took out his gun.

"Its not so we're protected is it Flik? Its so you can go out and find Mafia members to kill isn't it?" Viktor replied after a few short seconds surprisingly calmly

"What?" said Flik quietly

"You go out and kill them, that's what you do, when you go missing in the evenings. Is it because they killed her? Is it because of Odessa-"

"Stop!" Shouted Flik before his friend could finish "Yes! Ok! I do, I go out and find Mafia members to kill! She was innocent Viktor! She didn't deserve to die!" He shouted, getting out of his seat trembling "And I will kill every last one of them for that." Then walked out of the room, Viktor shook his head sadly, threw his coffee out the window and followed.

"And that's why you don't attack strangers." Said Camus giving Riou one final kick in the ribs before throwing him limply onto the almost unconscious form of Jowy, who was currently sporting a black eye and bruised ribs, blood cascaded down his nose and spattered everywhere as Riou fell on him. Wiping tears of pain from his eyes, he looked up at the man, he didn't look mad now, he had when he had turned round and planted a vicious left hook on Riou. Now he looked normal, pleasant even. 

He extended a hand to the fallen teen, Riou took it aprehensively.

"We're sorry we tried to beat you up and steal your money." He said through a fat lip

"Apology accepted." Said Camus, slapping his back heartily, he then heard a groan, Miklotov had awoken

"What the fuck has gone on here?" He asked, getting up.

"I just had to teach these charming gents a lesson in manners." Said the cop as he helped Jowy up. Suddenly they heard footsteps and a cry of

"GET THEM!!!" 

And then Riou grabbed Jowy's arm and ran, Camus and Miklotov not far behind.


	12. Murderous intent

Chapter 12

Flik walked along, he wasn't going home, he hadn't been home in a week, he was going to rid the world of at least one more vile Mafia murderer. He didn't care if it was hypocritical what he was doing, all he cared about was killing them. All of them, for what they did to him, for what they did to an innocent girl waiting for him on platform ten of Highland train station just as one of their punks had decided to wave around a piece while high on acid.

There was nothing he could do, he watched in horror from the window of the train as she was shot. An innocent girl was killed senselessly, so were several bystanders before the man could be detained.

It made him sick, it made tears of rage well up in his eyes just thinking about it.

He rounded a corner and saw a few hoodlums smoking crack, obviously muscle the Mafia had hired. They weren't professionals, they were just hired to beat people up, one of them noticed Flik and gave him a highly threatening leer.

"Well what do we have her-" He couldn't finish as Flik had already socked him right in the mouth, he fell to the floor with a cry and landed on one of his buddies who went down with him. Another one made to go forward but Flik had already drawn his gun and squeezed the trigger, putting a hole through the man's chest and spraying blood everywhere, the others stopped moving towards him, the punk on the floor had stopped screaming about his broken nose, they were all looking at him with fear in their eyes.

Flik then shot the two punks who were quivering on the floor, their blood spraying onto the walls, one of them jumped for him to disarm him, he easily stepped aside and gave the man a vicious kick in the ribs. Then shot him and left. No one would ever know, it was a bad neighbourhood, people were killed all the time, but at least they deserved it. He walked slowly towards a battered newsstand that was selling coffee, he bought a cup. It tasted like piss but he drank it anyway, then sat down on the high sidewalk. Killing always disorientated him. He heard footsteps behind him.

"You ok buddy?" Asked a young voice, Flik looked up and saw a young man, about college student age standing over him, he had wavy blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, which unsettled Flik. "You look a little rough."

"Whats it to you?" Flik said in a surly tone

"You been in a fight or something? Your covered in blood." The man continued

"A fight… Yeah, I was in a fight." Said Flik distantly "What do you care?"

"Huh? Jesus, you are a prick aren't you? I was just passin', trying to be friendly." Said the young man, who had spotted Flik's gun in his pocket and was going slowly for a knife he had concealed in his sleeve.

"Sorry." Said Flik getting up and brushing himself down "Its been a rough day."

"Yeah, sure." Said the young man, the then went for something in his jacket, he pulled out a folded photograph. "You haven't seen this man have you?" He said, showing Flik the photo. It was of a thin, handsome man with raven black hair and large glasses, he had an expression of smug satisfaction on his face and was standing with a pretty blonde girl holding onto his arm, she was looking up at him with adoration and love but he seemed more interested in whoever was taking the picture as he was staring at them with a cold glint in his eye. This man reminded Flik of Luca, the Mafia boss, whom he had only seen once.

"Who is he?" Asked Flik

"His name's Gabriel Zaj. I've been looking for him for a long time." Said the young man.

"Sorry." Said Flik, shaking his head "Haven't seen him I'm afraid." 

"Well, thanks anyway." Said the young man before walking off into another street.

Flik realised it was beginning to get dark and though maybe it was time he headed home. Pulling his jacket around him, he headed of in the direction of his house.

"Holy christwagons" Grinned Camus "That sure was a close one, eh kids?" He said, giving Riou a nudge, he attempted to swear at the man but his swollen lip muffled his words and Camus let out a laugh

"I really kicked your skinny asses didn't I?" He chortled "Well at least it cheered me up and that's really all that matters in the end isn't it?" Miklotov gave him a look

"This is no joke Camus." He said seriously "We now have the Mafia and these terrorists after us, which I'm pissed off about."

"Why? They're amateurs." Camus said

"Why? Because I believed in what they're fighting for!" He said, Camus went serious

"Haven't you forgotten that you're an officer of the law, they were breaking the law and as soon as I find the means I'm going to nail their asses and get my city back." Miklotov went silent

"I am a human first and a police officer second." He said quietly

"What the fuck is he talking about?" Whispered Jowy, Camus shrugged

"What it means, nimrod, is that I'll listen to my heart and not my badge like Camus!" He said, a little pissed off that they didn't get it.

"Then go." 

"What?" Miklotov said

"Go." Said Camus "If your not interested in upholding the law and would prefer to fight with them then leave."

"No. I didn't mean that." Said Miklotov, deflating a little. 

"You wanna tell us what's going on?" Asked Riou, Camus did a double take as he had forgotten he was there

"Ok squirt, this is how it happened…" 

And so Camus told them about it, about how he had been kidnapped, about how the police station had been taken over, and about the numerous near death situations he had been in, giving them blow by blow accounts and unnecessarily melodramatic descriptions of his mental health and growing emotional problems. Miklotov then took over and explained rationally. 

"So what's your story?" Asked Camus, when Miklotov had finished "Isn't it past your bed time?"

"Fuck you old man!" Said Riou. And then told them their story, about how they had been part of the Mafia, about how he had refused to follow and order, about how Jowy had been caught in bed with Jillia (much sniggering all round at this to Jowy's chagrin) and about how Nanami and Pilika were being held captive.

"Well my little hombre's, I think we can help each other." Said Camus, putting his arm round the two teen's shoulders "You can lead us there, and we can put and end to this and get your friends back."

"Sounds like a sweet deal." Said Jowy "Except we're wanted by them, they'll kill us if they see us."

"No, you just get us there, to where they operate and we'll do the rest." Said Miklotov, eager to make up for his admittance to believing in the terrorists.

"Fine." Said Riou "We'll get you there and get you in, but you have to get Nanami and Pilika."

"You can do that." Said Camus "We're planning on making a lot of noise so you'll be able to slip inside during the commotion and get them out."

Riou and Jowy looked uneasily at each other, then nodded.

"It's a deal."


	13. A time for Action!

Chapter 13

"So, like, I'll still be able to have sex and stuff?"

"Don't worry Mr Bear-"

"Its pronounced 'Beer'"

"… Right, sorry Mr Beer. Anyway, all your suffering from is a bruise on your left testicle, you should be back in action in a week."

"Cool."

Camus sat in the room the four of them had rented out in order for them to stay the night and have some privacy to formulate a proper plan.

It was greasy and in a really bad neighbourhood that Camus had been forced to patrol. Thankfully everyone who broke the law in the city knew Camus. And none of them were going to try anything with him so the four of them were pretty safe.

He had just woken up from a nap, he looked around and saw Riou and Jowy enter, he heard the familiar sound of something rattling against a plastic container and all those years on the job had managed to make Camus paranoid. He stood up and walked over, snatching a container out of Jowy's hands, he looked inside and saw five white tablets.

"What the fuck are these?" He asked, knowing full well what the answer would be

"Ecstasy man." Said Jowy, attempting to snatch the container back, Camus pushed him lightly away "And they're not for you!" He said angrily, going for them again. Camus opened the container and popped them all in his mouth to Riou and Jowy's obvious amazement. They stood there waiting for him to have an overdose attack but instead Camus began to laugh and threw the container off Jowy's head.

"You just scored yourself some flu pills." He grinned and sat back down "How much were they?"

"Fifty dollars" Riou said miserably, Camus chuckled

"Jesus your dumbasses." He grinned "Did you see Mikki on your way over?"

"Nope" Said Jowy, still pissed off at being swindled.

Suddenly the door flew open and Miklotov ran in looking excited

"OK, the terrorists are planning an attack on the Northwind Hotel tonight. Apparently Luca Blight is going to be there in person to seal a deal with one of his executive partners."

"So how did you find this out?" Asked Camus, surprised at how much his information his friend had brought back.

"Remember that guy Richmond who you asked to keep an eye on the steel mill?" 

"Yeah." Said Camus simply

"Well he's a private detective now, I had him find out a couple of things."

"Well done." Said Camus, grinning "So now we have a place and a time…" He trailed off, Miklotov saw this as a signal

"Ten o'clock."

"Right." Continued Camus "Ten o'clock."

"But what about these terrorists?" Riou asked, puzzled

"They're our diversion." Camus answered with a sly grin.

"I can smell a rat." Said Seed to Culgan

"You say that every day." Said Culgan calmly, not even looking at his younger red headed friend. "I don't think anything has ever gone wrong, in fact you saying you can smell a rat is sort of like a good luck charm for our business transactions." He finished.

Seed looked puzzled

"Well done." Said Culgan, patting him on the head, taking great pleasure in the expression of apoplectic annoyance that spread across his thin face.

"You fucker…" He said, as if those words carried the weight of hell on them. Culgan just grinned

"Here's the boss now." He said, nodding towards the entrance.

The funny thing about Luca Blight was that he didn't like to be followed by an entourage as many other Mafia bosses before him had done. He preferred to stroll in alone. And for some reason it made him seem all the more dangerous.

He walked in, his face wearing its familiar sardonic grin, the grin he wore before he smashed a baseball bat off your skull. Even Seed gulped.

He sat down in the leisure room, it was deserted as it had been rented out, Luca was opposite a fat man wearing a brown suit, he looked like a sex offender. But Luca wasn't bothered about that, he wanted his money. Then he was going to kill everyone in the room. He had instructed Seed and Culgan to stay outside when this happened and guard the doors.

It was going to get messy.

Luca put on his most winning smile, which ended up looking like a highly threatening leer and said 

"Well gentlemen, lets get down to business."

"So the plan is…" Said Camus, pacing, "…the terrorists will attack the hotel, possibly killing Luca, while Luca is gone we can sneak into the HQ and get your friends back. Me and Mikki will then stay behind and wait for Luca, if he appears, we arrest him. If he doesn't we take the HQ by force."

"Whoa there." Said Riou "You think the two of you can take it by force?"

"The whole building is operated by computer surveillance technology. I found that out when I got taken there." Said Miklotov "Richmond managed to burn a file into this disk which can shut it down, locking everyone in whatever room they're in, we want to be on the roof when this happens so we can hand the building over to whatever police force remains loyal to us."

"And that might not be any one so we're taking a real chance." Interjected Camus "However all you have to worry about is getting your friends out in under half an hour." He said to Riou and Jowy."

They all nodded

"Well no time like the present" Said Camus bracingly. "Lets get going."

They sat behind the Mercedes Benz in the parking lot of the hotel and watched five terrorists move quickly into the building. Camus knew they would probably be dead in a few minutes. He didn't care, if they were going to disrupt the peace in his city then they deserved whatever came to them.

He turned to Miklotov who had a look of steely determination on his slightly gaunt face, he then looked to Riou and Jowy who were pale with tension and worry.

"You ready?" He asked them, they all nodded. "Then lets go."

Luca heard the gunshots and immediately drew his two Uzi's, not caring whether they had finished the business deal yet he let fly with a blade of gunfire which sliced the fat man in the brown suit in half. 

He then moved onto his three body guards who were killed almost instantly by another arc of gunfire, two of them were beheaded, the other just slumped to the floor, the amount of bullets that had been shot into his torso and smashed his ribcage to bits.

The running outside he saw Culgan and Seed in a firefight with five men wearing black, the leader was a man wearing a blue bandana and looked almost as mad as he was.

He heard a cry and Culgan fell back, clutching his arm, Luca almost bursted with fury and without even taking cover leaped forwards and shot two of them men dead before anyone had a chance to react. 

Seed moved forwards too and took one out before grabbing the almost insane Luca and pulling him behind a nearby wall.

"What the fuck are you doing!" He screamed at Seed 

"Protecting you sir." Said the young red headed man, who then span round the corner and let fly with another volley of shots. He then turned to Luca "This may just be a diversion, we need to take them out as quickly as possible and get back to HQ."

"Fine." Said Luca, grinning sadistically "I'll just have a little fun taking these fuckers apart."


	14. Schizophrenia

Chapter 14

Viktor ran as fast as he could, all thoughts of his testicular activity out of his mind he ran. His buddy Flik was in danger and he was going to save him.

Valeria has rushed to his apartment and told Viktor what had happened. Then left to tell the others.

Viktor didn't go with her, he rushed straight to the scene, without a gun, without anything to defend himself, but he knew he had to help Flik, the guy had lost so much, he couldn't lose his life as well.

Rounding a bend Viktor was plunged into a sea of sirens and flames, he saw the once grand hotel was now a wreck, broken glass shards littered the pavement, there was blood everywhere. He saw five dead bodies, a sixth was being taken into an ambulance. He ran quickly and saw the familiar blue bandana that belonged to Flik, pushing aside two of the ambulance workers he saw his buddy, bleeding from the arm and side but alive. Flik saw Viktor and grinned

"I took one of 'em down with me Viktor." He said weakly

"What do you mean?" Viktor said, his voice quavering "Your not gonna die buddy." He said, looking at Flik's injuries, they were bad but he could be saved. Viktor had learned all about this during his marine training earlier in his life, he nodded to the ambulance workers and they took the injured man into the ambulance. 

As he was carried off Viktor walked over to the bodies littering the streets and the shattered lobby of the hotel. His soul awash with relief. He saw the familiar gaunt face of Culgan, his features twisted in wide eyed a grimace of pain. He bent down and closed the corpses eyes with a brush of his hand, there were no grudges in death. He looked on at the other bodies with grief, they had been his friends. But he knew what to do, before the police reached the area he was already gone, running to find Teresa. They had to end the Mafia now.

Miklotov was tired. He knew he was about to walk into the lion's den so to speak, and he knew he was about to face death at possibly every turn. But to be honest, he couldn't be bothered.

He had been sucked into this, and he wanted out. He now realised what Camus meant, no good could come from this kind of criminal activity. The terrorists weren't on his side they were disrupting the peace.

And he and Camus were going to solve this problem somehow. Though he didn't know, however Camus obviously had a pretty good idea as he strode confidently behind the two teens who obviously knew the way fluently.

They moved across the backstreet's of the rich industrial district until they reached an empty lot behind the huge Blight Arms building. 

Riou tugged on Camus' arm and pulled him behind a dumpster, Jowy and Miklotov followed.

"There's a guard behind that door there." Said Riou, pointing to a barely visible dull grey metal door opposite them. "He lets Highland thugs in if they have a password."

"And do you have one?" Asked Camus, looking around to see if there might be another entrance into the fortress-like building.

"No." Said Jowy "They change the password every day."

"Right." Said Camus, barely listening "Well the time for being subtle is over." He said, pulling a handgun from his jacket pocket and firing three rounds into the door, it opened and a body slumped out. The other three looked at him in shock.

"Right, get inside, we'll lock any guards who come round the front out." Camus said, undeterred by the looks of obvious horror on their faces.

They ran inside, a few guards were running down the small corridor but the two policemen took them out easily and left their bodies blocking the door. 

After a few minutes of moving through the labyrinthine lower quarters of the huge building they reached a set of stairs, moving up them quietly they reached a cleaner, more office building-type corridor, three guards stood in front of one of the rooms, the four intruders, stole back down the stairs quietly.

"I think that's where they're keeping Nanami and Pilika." Whispered Riou

"Ok." Said Camus "We'll get rid of the guards, you get them out, me and Mikki" (Twitch) "Will move on got it?" Both teens nodded.

Camus and Miklotov emerged from the staircase and walked past the guards as if they couldn't see them. This was a trick they had used countless times and they both knew exactly what to do. One of the guards moved forwards and grabbed Miklotov's arm

"Hey! No grunts past the lower quarters!" He shouted

"Oh, sorry." Said Miklotov confidently "We just needed to report a break in to the boss."

"I see." Said one of the guards "Well we'll do it. You stay here." Said the guard and he and another walked down the corridor.

Camus wasted no time and leaped forwards, planting a punch on the last guards stomach, he fell to the floor and was knocked out by a kick to the face. 

"Ok guys, you get your friends out of here." Said Camus, grabbing the guards gun and tossing it to Miklotov "We'll move on." However as they began to walk down the corridor they heard Jowy pipe up

"Wait!" Both men turned "If you see Jillia, please try and get her out." 

Camus was about to say that it wasn't their problem but Miklotov cut in with

"We will, don't worry about it." And the two men walked down the corridor. Camus gave him a glance that said 'what the fuck are you thinking?' Miklotov noticed this and shrugged.

"It was the right thing to do." He said.

As Seed drove recklessly towards the building Luca had only one thing on his mind. Murder. He didn't care anymore, he would kill everyone and anyone who stood in his way. Somehow he knew the end was coming near and he wanted to make sure he took down as many people as he could. He looked at Seed, the young man had dared to question him.

__

NO one can question me! Said the part of his brain that was responsible for all those deaths

__

NO ONE can tell me what to do! I must make him pay! 

Seed was blissfully unaware of the knife now edging towards his throat and he drove on.


	15. Sickness

Chapter 15

Seed stopped the car near the building but not so close that people would be able to see where they were. He got out and looked back at Luca, his head flopped onto the back seat, his mad features twisted with horror and pain. Seed grinned, snapping his neck had been a piece of cake. No one fucked with Jack Seed and got away with it.

He smiled a beatific smile and walked on.

__

So you're my new friend eh?

Said a voice not too different to his own, Seed didn't answer.

__

Are you going to kill them? 

It simpered, Once again Seed didn't answer. He knew the voice was coming from inside him. This must have been what Luca was suffering from. Well Seed had the last laugh, he was going to take that whole family down with him. He knew the two cops would bring the Mafia to its knees. 

All he had to do was bring as many people down with him.

Whistling softly, he loaded his pistol and made his was to Blight Arms major headquarters.

"Camus do you have any idea what you're doing?" Asked Miklotov, he knew the answer. And sighed before Camus could even utter a word.

"Ok, so I don't but we can shut this down." He said, trolling through file after meaningless file. He then looked over at Miklotov with a grin "Where you putting porn on here?" Miklotov went red.

"I was certainly not!"

"Let's see what we have here, deepthroat, teen porn, thick ass…" Camus said, as if he was reading off a list. 

"C'mon Camus stop dicking around!" Shouted Miklotov 

"Ok Mikki!" Twitch "But man, this is a lot of porn and its not mine. I get too much sex to need all this." Miklotov nearly exploded with fury but held it back and merely said

"Find the file you cunt." Camus nodded with a grin.

"Ah!" He said triumphantly "Here we are!" He stood up and switched off the computers, grinning. A few seconds later the lights went out and the steel doors slammed shut. 

"Ok, plan successful." Said Miklotov "But how are we going to get to Luca if he can't get in the building?"

"Easy my impetuous friend." Said Camus, swinging a set of keys. "These are the master keys to the building, I tried them out on our way here, apparently that guard I beat up was a pretty important dude." Miklotov grinned, Camus was certainly annoying but he always got them out of a scrape.

"So we just mosey on out of here and arrest Luca Blight."

"Yep, we have enough evidence." Said Camus, tapping the small camera up his sleeve that he had used to photograph the drug stores and illegal weapon stashes in the building. "I'd say the fucker's about to get twenty to thirty years for this shit." He grinned.

Riou sat slumped against the wall, tears staining his face. They had failed. He looked down at the dead body of Jowy, lying in front of him, his eyes wide with horror, a thin trickle of blood running down his chin. 

Nanami lay still on the floor, face down in a pool of blood and Pilika had suffered a similar fate. Riou knew the bullet wound in his side was fatal. He knew he was about to die, he looked up into the red merciless eyes of Seed.

"Say goodnight." He giggled before pulling the trigger.

Explosions rocked the building, Camus could hear screaming as he and Miklotov made their way quickly through the building, shrapnel falling around them from explosion after explosion. The terrorists were attacking. The two cops ran though the corridors, only stopping to unlock the doors, the thugs and guards not bothering with them in their panic.

Quickly making their way into the lower quarters they ran through the endless corridors 'til they saw light. Sprinting out, they leaped forward into the dirt just in time before another explosions destroyed the entrance and the better part of that side of the building.

That Shu guy really did know his shit, thought Camus as they lay in the dirt, trying to avoid the explosion. 

"Pretty clever to attack the place during a power cut." Shouted Camus over the din

"Yeah, real smart!" Miklotov shouted back "Now lets get outta here!" He got up and instantly fell heavily back down again, clutching his shoulder, Camus scuttled forward and saw to his horror that Miklotov was suffering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder. Drawing on all his strength Camus dragged the bigger man behind one of the large dumpsters that dotted the back of the building. 

"Who's shooting at us?" Camus shouted frustrated, grabbing his handgun and jumping from behind the dumpster "You wanna fight someone!?" He shouted "Then fight me!"

"Gladly" Came a voice, and Camus turned round in time to see Seed, his gun pointed to his chest, madness evident in his red eyes. He straightened up and said simply "Let's get it on."

Viktor managed to pull himself out of the fire escape just before another explosion tore itself through the wall he had been previously standing next to, climbing shakily down the ladder, the sound of more explosions fresh in his ears.

As soon as he reached the ground he realised he would have been safer in the burning building, all around him he could hear gunshots and sirens, he had managed to land himself right in the middle of a firefight. Who it was between was lost on him, however he knew the police were part of it. So it was either get shot or get arrested, he had to do something quick, suddenly he felt someone hit him at waist height and haul him into an alley next to the building, he looked up into the face of Humphrey

"We're getting outta here." He said, pulling Viktor up

"What about the others?" Viktor asked, bewildered

"Futch is back at my place, we've gotta get outta dodge. I would have taken Flik too but he's in hospital and I'm guessing he's safe." Said Humphrey as they ran out into the main streets and towards the club district, which was where Humphrey lived. Viktor stopped him in a quieter street.

"What about Teresa and the others?" He asked "What are they gonna do?"

"They're dead." Said Humphrey "Dead or in prison, you were the last one out." Suddenly a truck pulled up next to them, sitting in it was Futch

"Need a ride fella's?" He grinned 

"What the fuck are you doing in my truck boy?!" Shouted Humphrey 

"You took ages, I got worried." He said, moving quickly into the back seat. "Is Viktor coming too? Where's Flik?"

"In Hospital." Said Viktor quietly, he then looked up "Where are we going?"

"New York." Said Humphrey "My buddy Nash has a place up there, he's gone on a trip and he's not using it so he says we can take it. You know, to lie low and shit."

Viktor nodded. He looked to the streets, the streets he had been raised on. He remembered getting chased by the police with Flik, stealing from the local shops, shooting hoops on the dilapidated basketball courts near his house. Good times, but not the best, nothing could be too great in this town. He was torn from his thought by the trucks loud horn.

"You comin'?" Shouted Futch, Viktor looked up and smiled 

"Yeah." He said, and to himself thought, so long Highland.

Camus gulped, hard. He looked mad, completely mad. Mad like Luca did. Suddenly a shot was fired, but Camus was already leaped sideways and firing one himself, it didn't connect. But at least he was alive, scrabbling behind the dumpster, he heard another shot ricochet of the wall a few feet away. Spinning out from behind the dumpster he fired another shot, it missed, landing a few inches from Seed's head, who have a howl of laughter and ran forwards, shooting madly. 

He didn't care if he ran out of bullets, as long as he killed his prey, however all too soon his descent on Camus was stopped as a bullet tore through his leg and sent him sprawling onto the floor, he got up quickly, ignoring the incredible pain in his calf and ran on, leaping forwards with inhuman speed and catching Camus by the neck.

The two men rolled on the ground, each one trying to get the upper hand in this dance of death, Camus lashed out and hit his insane assailant on the jaw, causing him to roll sideways and giving Camus some breathing room.

He staggered to his feet, breathing heavily. He looked down at Seed, his hair was tousled and covered in mud and his designer suit was ripped and crumpled. If he wasn't trying to kill him, Camus would have found this site hilarious.

It began to rain.

And Seed saw his chance, with a scream of primal rage he leaped and this time Camus was not able to fight back, pushing him to the floor, Seed began to throttle. He pressed his fingers into the pressure points on Camus' neck and began to squeeze, laughing maniacally.

And then the laughter stopped and Seed fell forwards onto Camus, his grip loosened and he rolled sideways, his face locked in a manic grin. Forever.

Camus got up, gasping for air and saw Miklotov standing there, gun raised, blood oozing from his shoulder.

He smiled and fell.


	16. Invitation

Chapter 16

May be he was driving too fast, Camus didn't know. Nor did he care, because his best friend was currently lying in the back seat, unconscious and suffering from a bad gunshot wound to the shoulder. Pulling a hard left, Camus started to round on the Mathiu Silverburg Memorial hospital on Muse street. He skidded outside and into a parking space beautifully before leaping from the car and pulling Miklotov with him.

It had been three hours. And it was way past closing time, however Camus had been able to pull some strings with the big cheese here, a woman by the name of Regina Apple. Camus also had a lot of authority now that he was the newly reinstated head DI of Highland city police. Now headed by George Granmeyer, who had quickly come out of retirement when he heard about Gorudo's death. 

He had taken the police from the Mafia's grip just before the attack on Blight Arms and had also organised a raid. 

Camus silently thanks the god he had forsaken years ago that there were still sane men like him left in the city.

He looked up and took another sip of his coffee.

"Man, all these late nights are going to be hell for my rugged god looks." He chuckled to himself, rubbing his eyes "Aw hell, its unhealthy when a guy can crack himself up."

"Its also unhealthy for a man to be talking to himself." Said Voice from behind him, Camus span round and saw the familiar tall, thin frame of Shu, his handsome face lit up with a grin. Camus eyes widened.

"Didn't you die in the attack?"

"Did you really think I'd be so stupid as to actually go with them?" He sneered, sitting down next to Camus.

"Why are you here? And why are you wearing a doctors coat?" Asked Camus, bemused.

"I had to get in here somehow, and not all of us can be head DI's you know." He said, and then handed the slightly confused policeman a slip of paper "Come here at ten o'clock."

"What? No!" Camus shouted, coming to his senses somewhat. "I need to get my friends results."

"Ah yes. The loud one. With the stick up his ass." He grinned "You really care for him don't you?"

"He's like a brother." Said Camus "I never had a family, his kind of took me in."

"I know." Said Shu calmly.

"You do? How could you know?" Camus said, not looking at Shu

"You'll find everything out when you come here at ten." He said, pointing to the piece of paper. Camus took it from him, it said 14 Greenhill Close.

"Classy." He said, looking at Shu. A few days ago he might have angrily inquired as to what this was all about and why he had to come. But not now, he was tired, he hurt and his best friend's life was in the balance.

"Just go ok?" Said Shu, suddenly Camus remembered

"No, I have to stay to find out Mikki's tests." Shu sighed at this

"Fine, here." He said, producing a folded piece of paper from his lab coat "I anticipated that this might be your reaction." 

He handed the piece of paper to the you policeman who unfolded it and looked at hi9s friends stats. He was suffering from a shattered collar bone and internal bleeding, other than that he would be fine within a few months. Camus felt relief wash over him.

"Thank god." He said quietly, then turned to say something to Shu but he was already gone, Camus could hear his footsteps through the corridors. 

"Be there at ten Camus." He called over his shoulder as he left the building.

Driving quickly back to his apartment, Camus armed himself and ran out, suddenly a dark figure leaped in front of him

"Prepare to die mortal! For I am the WAMPIRE!!!!" 

"Get outta my way Jimmy." Said Camus, but the tall vampire-alike barred his way

"You haf not been paying your rent mortal." He said, a stern expression on his deathly white face.

"Aw shut up man, I'll give it to you tomorrow. I've got somewhere to go."

"You better punk, I mean, mortal!" he said, and then swooped away humming the Apollo launch music loudly to add to the effect.

"That guy needs a girlfriend." Mumbled Camus, who then leaped into his stolen Beamer and drove off.

Greenhill Close was where rich people who hadn't actually earned it lived, the idiot aristocrat and such. Therefore it was free of any kind of corruption because, in all honesty, the residents where certainly not intelligent enough for organised crime.

Camus pulled up outside one of the bigger houses and helped himself to some water from the fountain, he then grinned and knocked the penis off a stone cherub water feature.

He looked around, the houses were built onto a hill over looking the city. It was so contrasting, with its smoggy industrial area, glitzy showbiz one and then the slums, where Camus had grown up, having to fight for food and score drugs to keep his mind off the pain of everyday life.

Shaking his head, Camus walked along 'til he found number fourteen, it was probably one of the smaller mansions, but still very grand, with two Mercedes parked in the front and a gate keeping him out.

He walked over to the intercom and pressed the button

"Yo, I was told to come here by Shu, its me, Camus."

He heard the intercom buzz and a calm but slightly gruff sounding voice answered

"Yeah, come in." Another buzz, and the gates opened slowly, allowing Camus access to the huge parking lot/front drive.

Looking slightly apprehensively around, Camus walked along the drive until he reached the almost cavernous front doors. He knocked and it opened. His eyes widened at the site of the person who answered it.

"You!"

"Yep." Said Leon Silver burg "Me, why don't you come in?"


	17. A disturbing revelation

Chapter 17

"Ok now what the fuck is this?" Said Camus as he walked into the cosy home of Leon Silverburg.

"My wife's out so we can talk for a bit longer than I anticipated. She wanted a quiet night in but the office called her over." Said Leon, without even looking at Camus, just leading him into a cavernous sitting room, the furniture was old but incredibly comfortable and well made, the walls were a dark polished wood and against the wall was a huge flat screen TV. "She thinks I don't work you know." He said, grinning and pouring himself some brandy, he tilted the bottle towards Camus in offering, the young policeman opted to instead repeat.

"What the fuck is this?" Leon laughed

"Dear God boy, I credited you with at least some intelligence."

"What's the supposed to mean?" Camus asked angrily

"It means, Bobby, that I thought you of all people would have been able to figure out what was going on here."

"Wha…? I feel you may be overestimating me a bit." Scoffed the young man, slightly taken aback by being called Bobby, it wasn't a normal occurrence.

"Well I don't think I am." Leon said, sipping his brandy "Man, this stuff tastes like moose piss."

"Well buy some good stuff, you do live in a fucking mansion." Said Camus, silently surprised that he wasn't smacking some skulls.

Camus wasn't a violent man, but he didn't like being shunted around without being told what was going on.

"Well my wife wants to save up for a Caribbean cruise, and we need spending money, I'm thinking of buying a house over there." Said the middle aged man

"Yeah, its really nice over there during Winter, great way to get away from the- hey wait a minute! Stop distracting me! Why am I here!?"

"Have a seat Bobby."

"Its Camus." 

"Oh, so you actually prefer being addressed by your second name?" He said, slightly puzzled

"That's odd." Camus didn't answer, but just sat down in one of the old but comfortable chairs. Leon obviously saw this as an indication to begin.

He sat down also, his brandy discarded on the table next to his couch.

"Well, it all started with Luca Blight's father."

"What started? What are you actually explaining to me?" Asked Camus

"Shu didn't tell you?" Leon said, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"No he didn't, enlighten me." Camus replied, more than a little dangerously. Unperturbed, Leon leaned back and said.

"I'm explaining to you why the Highland Mafia and you could never gain the upper hand over each other, why you could not wipe them out and they couldn't wipe you out. Why they had to in the end, corrupt Gorudo in order to get you on the run."

Camus had thought about this himself, it was like something out of a cop movie, two opposing sides with equal power. It just wasn't realistic, things like that didn't happen in real life, either he would have been dead long ago or Luca would have been killed. In real life something like this just wouldn't be cut so fine.

He shook himself from his thoughts and looked up.

"Ok then, explain."

"Well." Leon grinned "This is more like it. Anyway, it all started with Luca Blight's father, Agares Blight. We met in Vietnam and became good friends quickly, my natural skill in strategy and his ruthless lust for power made us an excellent team both on and off the battlefield. We came back home heroes. But Agares wanted more he didn't just want to be a war hero, a 'drone', he wanted to be somebody. 

It was then that we began to construct weapons. At first was just souped up handguns and such but soon a weapons company saw out designs and models and decided to take us on board." 

He said, leaning over afterwards and picking his brandy glass up from the table by the couch, taking a sip he looked at Camus and without another word continued.

"Well anyway, after a few years working for this company it was obvious that we were their best employee's and they soon promoted us to joint vice-president of the company, the president being a man named Barbarrossa."

Camus gasped

"Barbarrossa Rugner? The Mafia crime boss in Gregminister three years ago?" He stared in disbelief, could this be coincidence? He thought to himself.

"The very same." Leon continued grimly "Well anyway, he was arrested after he was caught and me and Agares were automatically promoted to joint president of the company. We renamed it Blight Arms and I took up job as Agares' financial advisor so I would have more time for my family.

The company was a roaring success and our weaponry and technology helped win a lot of wars. Helped kill, a lot of people." He added, with more than a little bitterness in his gruff voice. Camus sat in silence, waiting. 

Leon took a swig of brandy this time and almost drained the glass.

"Anyway, we were big. The biggest arms company in this state. But Agares wanted more, he had always been idealistic, but his ideals were… Disturbing to say the least."

Camus thought he might be cottoning on.

"So you began to hire thugs to take out the opposition." Camus grinned, he knew the game, Miklotov's dad had to deal with it a lot when the two were children. He would come in exhausted complaining about having to bust yet another corrupt politician or company president-turned drug lord.

"He did! I was against the whole fucking idea, know that." Leon said angrily, which took Camus completely off guard.

"Just, just get on with the story." Camus said, still a little surprised at Leon's outburst. Did he really feel that much remorse about this?

"Ok, well yes, Agares thought it might be a good idea to take out the opposition. But it didn't stop there. After five years he had created America's finest and most ruthless Mafia. And soon Blight Arms practically owned America, for all the obvious reasons. Well it was around this time that we came across the technology to clone. To, in essence, create the perfect human."

Camus' eyes widened at this, was it possible? Leon continued.

"So Agares is now feeling mortal, he's older and realises that he could die soon, ridiculous really as he was only in his early thirties but the war had unbalanced him somewhat. Anyway, on his command we began work on cloning. Cloning a successor."

Camus couldn't help himself

"Luca! Luca's a fucking clone of Agares isn't he!?" Leon gave a grim smile

"Yep, however he was a failure, he was 'born' with horrible mental trauma which made him incredibly violent, like an exaggerated version of his father really. Paranoid, unstable and power hungry, Luca was, in Agares' eyes the perfect successor. He adopted the clone and raised him to become as evil and ruthless as he was. But there were three others, three other clones that we never did use."

"So what did you do with them? Did you kill them?" Camus asked

"Far from it." Leon said, darkly "The first one was not really a clone as such, it was an already born child with the enhanced genes injected into it. It died, it grew up as normal and the drugs had no effect on it, I was relieved to say the least but Agares was furious. The next was grown, not from Agares' genes as Luca was, but grown from only natural resources. The child was normal, but suffered disturbing mood swings, and could become violent at times. And the third, in my eyes was the success, we took some of my own genes. But he showed no signs of the madness and furious nature that Agares felt was needed to become the next leader of the Blight clan."

"So what did you do with the failure's?" Camus asked, enthralled. Leon was silent for a few moments, 

"The first one, the already born subject went back to his parents, who had been taken forcefully from them by Agares. The second is now dead, he died in the attack and the third… Is sitting right in front of me."

Camus ran, he ran as fast as he could in no particular direction, leaping over a taxi and landing on the bonnet, he slid down and kept running, through the midnight traffic, none hit him. He ran faster, his vision blurred by tears of confusion and dispair. He was a lie, a creature bred to kill, like Luca, as was Miklotov and Seed.

He didn't know what he was going to do, but he had to get away and sort his brain out. 

Shu took a drag from his cigarette and put his foot on the accelerator, his blue Cadillac tearing up the road and out of Greenhill close, he was following the figure, running at inhuman speed. So Leon had told him, Shu didn't know how he would take it if he was told he was born a clone of another. It was freaky to say the least but he had to catch up to Camus and tell him the rest of the story. Then he had to tell that idiot Miklotov, though, Shu thought, it would probably be less painful for him. At least he had parents, at least he was born before the experiments were done on him. Camus was injected with the enhancement serum when he was still in the womb.

Shu drove as fast as he could but Camus was soon lost in the woods that surrounded the city. He had lost him.


	18. Road rage!

Chapter 18

Shu pulled up in a pitstop just off the highway, he walked into one of the small, grotty little café's and saw Camus, sitting, hunched over a coffee. He walked over and sat down beside him.

"My god, what are you doing?" He said, a slight sneer on his handsome face.

"Getting out of here, I need to think." Said the troubled young man

"Don't you think you do enough of that already?" Shu said, hailing the waitress over, she was a short, attractive you woman who was obviously pleased at the sight of the two handsome young men, seeing as all day she had had to deal with disgruntled truckers.

"What'll it be gents?" She said in a winning voice, a smile playing on her pretty features.

"I'll have a coffee and my friend here will have some tea." Said Shu, smiling at the young girl as she walked off.

"Don't you get it?" Camus said, looking at the almost cheerful looking young man "I was born in a test tube!" He then said, rather too loudly

"Ah, not quite." Shu murmured as he looked over to see if the waitress was anywhere near getting their drinks. He then turned to Camus "You were born naturally, but you were injected with the enhancement drug whilst in the womb."

Camus went silent, not sure what to think, so he had been born naturally, like Miklotov, but he had still been given what Seed and Luca had. Would he go mad as well? 

He was pulled from his thoughts by the waitresses voice.

"Ok, that's one tea and one coffee." She said, putting their drinks down in front of them. "Anything else?" She said

"No' that'll be fine thanks." Shu smiled at her and she walked back to the counter, giving them one last look before she went to serve a over-sexed gentleman in a crumpled grey suit.

Shu then turned to Camus

"It's imperative that I tell you this now. You know how Seed and Luca, well. Lost it a bit." The words sounded lame, especially seeing as Shu usually had such a wide vocabulary but he seemed a bit uneasy. Too uneasy, and Camus could tell he was going to tell him something he didn't want to hear.

"Well, that was the drug's one side-effect. After a while, it'll send you as mad as Luca was."

Camus' head bowed. He knew it, he was going to lose it any time soon. Why the fuck did this have to happen to him? Everything was going so well, he had just been promoted, he had taken down the Mafia. He was a hero, and now, if he didn't get out of dodge soon, he was going to kill someone.

"So," Said Shu, pulling him from his thoughts "I need you to come with me, Leon can help you, we're working on-"

"No." Camus said quietly but firmly, getting up slowly, his usually agility and exuberance gone. "No, it would take too much time, I'm no scientist and even I know something as drastic as gene replacement could take years. By that time I could have already killed too many people."

Shu smiled grimly

"Very noble of you, but I'm afraid you have no choice, you can't live out here like a hermit all your life. Plus the madness will kill you." He said, he could tell a couple of the truckers on the table opposite them were listening so he grabbed Camus by the arm and led him outside. It was beginning to rain.

As soon as they got outside, Camus shrugged himself out of Shu's grip,

"Look, I'm a danger to everyone around me now. Think about the mindless slaughter Luca and Seed created. I don't want to ever do that."

"Anyway, you won't be the next one to go mad." Camus looked up in alarm.

"Miklotov was injected before you were, the madness spreads in chronological order apparently."

"What?" Camus said, his eyes widening. "What the fuck are you here talking to me for then!?" he shouted, looking at Shu with horror. He then ran down the small muddy hill leading to the car park and tried to open Shu's Cadillac's door. Shu jingled his keys

"You'll need these." He said

"How can you be so calm, Miklotov could be there at that hospital right now, killing people!"

"What can you do about it!? Kill him? I know you won't!" Shouted Shu down to him, walking towards the car.

"If that's what I've got to do then fine." Said the young cop grimly. They stood there in silence, Shu then walked to the door and pressed the unlock button on his keys. Camus opened the doors and got in. 

"Hey!" Shu shouted, Camus looked back and a trace of a grim crept across his handsome face

"Sorry, you'd just slow me down." And then he took off, bombing down the highway, Shu left at the pitstop.

"Well I guess now I have more time to hit on that sexy waitress." 

And he did.

__

You're a spineless worm.

"No I'm not." Miklotov said, trying to shake the voice out of his head.

__

You are, you're pathetic.

"Leave me alone…" He said, though his voice was empty. The voice in his head had gone on for sometime now, almost an hour, he had tried not to listen to it but it sounded just like him. But there was something else there, hate. Something Miklotov had never experienced until now.

It kept flashing images of death and pain through his head, to entice him, to make him hate.

__

Why won't you kill, you piece of shit!

"Get out of my head!!!" Shouted the cop, leaping out of bed and smashing the TV on his desk 

__

That's it…

It said, a self satisfied tone in its familiar voice

"No! Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!" He slammed his fist through the TV table, he felt the incredible pain but didn't care. It wasn't his fault he was in pain, it was the doctors fault, why wasn't he better yet?

Were they making him ill? Why weren't they helping him?

__

They don't care about you, they want you to die.

And with that, Miklotov's head hung, he gave up. He knew what to do.

Camus shot down the highway as fast as he could, how the hell did he run this far? He thought to himself, he was till maybe half a mile from the city entrance. 

He heard police sirens, he was speeding. These guys were obviously new, hired by Granmeyer and the little bastards were keen. 

Being keen was never something you should be if you were a policeman, clever yes, tough definitely, but being keen just got your ass kicked, which was about to happen right now. Camus stopped and opened his window. The policeman stopped and peered into his window.

"Can I see your license sir?" The young man asked.

"No." Camus said simply. And drove on, speeding even faster down the highway as if to scorn the officers. He smiled to himself, that was fun, even if Miklotov was about to kill people, scaring kids never lost its charm. And he was still grinning to himself when the drunk driver slammed his Pinto into the side of the Cadillac, he span out of control and went off the road, smashing into the highway fence and taking it down, the car rolled twice and stopped, lying upside down.

And then a small flame began to lick its way into existence near the engine. Camus swore quietly to himself and blacked out.


	19. Happy endings only exist in fairy tales

Chapter 19

"Uuuuum……. F…. Fuckblammo…." 

What the fuck? That was the best he could come up with? He was dead, he was probably in the black void of limbo or something (Camus was certainly not a religious man and did not believe in any kind of heaven or hell.) and all he could come up with was fuckblammo. That wasn't even a word.

He tried to get up but felt only an incredible searing pain in his chest. He reached out and touched the hard quazi-leather outer coating of his steering wheel. Leather? Was he in a mac truck?

Then it hit him and everything was explained, especially the strange upside down feeling. He was literally upside down, and trapped in his own toppled, crashed car.

It didn't get any worse than this. And then it hit him, all the horrible revelations and the fact that he had crashed while driving to kill his best friend. It was too much, he felt like giving up there and then. Then he realised that the car was slowly burning and suddenly all he wanted to do was get out, wriggling as much as he could (which was incredibly painful) he was able to get out of his seat belt, he then fell hard onto the ceiling, which was now the floor and quickly lunged for the door. 

He opened it with a great deal of difficulty and fell out, coughing and spluttering, onto the damp grass next to the highway.

He was a little confused that no one had come to help him, cars were zooming past and didn't seem to notice him, these people really had their heads stuck up their asses.

Crawling away as fast as he could, he heard a few small crackling noises and then before he knew it he was hunched in a ball, a huge explosion blossoming into existence behind him. That should get their attention he grinned, and got up. His muscles were no where near as tired as he thought they'd be and the pain in his chest had subsided now he had got all the smoke out of his lungs. He'd been lucky. 

Stumbling forwards, he felt his strength regaining at a rapid rate. Jesus, being a freaky test tube baby had its perks.

Walking next to the highway, he stuck his thumb out, the idea was to hitch a ride before the cops got there. Despite the fact that this looked so fucking suspicious.

"Ah, man." He sighed and started to walk back, absolutely convinced it wouldn't work. Suddenly a truck stopped by him. The door opened and he was instantly met with the large, tanned face of Viktor.

"Need a ride dude?"

Shu swore under his breath, he couldn't believe he had actually let that idiot drive off and possibly get himself killed. In his Cadillac!

Still, he had got a bit of store room action with sexy waitress so it had not been that bad but still, his duty was to stop Camus doing something rash. He was, after all, Leon's son.

And he owed to much to Leon to let him down.

It had been a real strain on his conscience to crack that trucker over the head and steal his keys. But he had to get a ride and get to Camus before he reached the city and killed someone, or was killed himself.

Unfortunately the truck was so slow and cumbersome that he doubted he would reach the city in that time. He swore and blew his immense horn (that sounded dirty) for no reason as most cars were getting the fuck out of his way. Sighing, he put the radio on.

"Fuck. Sinatra."

"Fuck, Sinatra!" Futch shouted as the radio crackled into life. The truck was old and large but surprisingly fast and was getting them into town easily enough. However, Camus knew it might take another fifteen minutes or so, so he decided to relax, or as much as he possibly could right before confronting your possibly homicidal best friend.

"So whats up? Why were you heading back into town?" Camus asked.

"Well, we were gonna leave, when we decided to head back to town and grab Flik, we heard on the radio about the pigs reinstating themselves and we knew he'd get nabbed."

"So why aren't you beating the shit out of me now?" Camus said, wincing as if he were about to get hit. Viktor just laughed

"Hell, you killed more of those Mafia fuckers then I did. The least I could do."

"Keep your eyes on the road!" Humphrey shouted as Viktor nearly crashed into a snazzy merc in front of them. Suddenly they saw it, the entrance to the city. And then the torrential rain of police cars moving towards them. All for of them, in unison said

"Fuck!"

Viktor turned to Camus.

"How did they know we were here?"

"They must have seen us leave in the truck earlier." Futch said, panic evident in his voice. 

"After all, we did kill a fuckload of people." Humphrey said, calmly. "Camus, we're going the long way round to the hospital to lose them, were are you headed?"

"The Memorial hospital." Camus said "Looks like I'll be jumping out then guys." He saluted to them, and leaped out the door, rolling expertly as he hit the floor. He watched the truck move expertly round the corner, being hounded by three police car.

And now, the long run to the hospital. Camus picked himself up and ran.

Shu reached the city, only to be met with police cars moving quickly around the corner to the slums. He drove as quickly as he could in the shitty excuse for an automobile he was in at the towards the memorial hospital, which was surely where Camus would go to stop Miklotov. Was Miklotov really on a murderous rampage though? Would this be all for nothing?

Shu knew in his heart and mind that whatever waited for Camus in that hospital would not be pleasant.

And Shu was always right, he looked solemnly out the window. This city was the setting for a great tragedy, just like Gregminister. So many were dead because of him, because of Leon. Because of Agares, because they didn't kill the clones when they should have. And now, a lot of people were most probably going to die again. But only Camus would be able to kill Miklotov, just as only Seed had been able to kill Luca and only Camus had, in turn, been able to kill Seed. No human could get rid of them. The animals would slowly eradicate themselves.

The adrenaline rush had worn off now, and Camus was beginning to feel fatigue. But the hospital was in sight now, suddenly a truck flew past him and stopped in the car park. Was it Viktor again?

The door opened and the slim frame of Shu walked out. Camus stopped, leaning against the railing for support as he felt his strength ebbing away.

"So, what are you gonna do?" Shu asked, as he walked towards the exhausted young man.

"I thought you were cool with me doing this?" Camus panted

"Well I just needed to check…" Shu trailed off

"You mean check I didn't go loco and kill someone?" Camus, said angrily, then suddenly his hand shot into Shu's jacket and he snatched his gun out of its shoulder holster. Shu didn't say anything.

Camus walked over to the entrance of the hospital, it was silent. And all the lights were out. He felt fear creep up his spine. And then, without another word. Walked into the entrance, Shu could only watch as he was slowly enveloped in darkness. 

So, this was it….


End file.
